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Yorkshire Puritanism 



AND 



Early Nonconformity. 



Illustrated by the Lives of the Ejected Ministers, 
1660 and 1662. 



BY 

THE LATE REV. BRYAN DALE, M.A. 

(Some time Secretary of the Yorkshire Congregational Union). 



EDITED BY T. G. CRIPPEN 

(Secretary of the Congregational Historical Society). 



Revs. J. Gregory, G. Hunsworth, M.A., and G. S. Smith, Bradford, 
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FOREWORD. 



The late Rev. Bryan Dale, M.A., was, as is well-known,, 
an accomplished and indefatigable student of the History 
of Nonconformity and Independency. He grudged no 
labour and research in collecting and amassing material 
bearing on this study, exploring for this purpose the 
archives of the British Museum, Lambeth Palace, the 
Bodleian Library, Oxford, as well as other sources of 
information. 

The result is very partially embodied in the present 
work on "Yorkshire Puritanism and Early Nonconform- 
ity." This has been carefully compiled from Mr. Dale's 
notes and ably edited by the Rev. T. G. Crippen, 
Secretary of the Congregational Historical Society. 

For the Nonconformist Churches of Yorkshire, and 
especially for those of the Congregational Faith and 
Order, this work should have a special interest and value. 
It is a monument to the men who, in the heroic age of 
Nonconformity, preferred to encounter homelessness, 
privation and suffering rather than purchase peace at the 
price of conscience, and buy off by unworthy compliance 
the resentment and intolerance of the then rulers of 
Church and State. 

It was Mr. Dale's purpose to write a full and compre- 
hensive history of Congregationalism in Yorkshire. This 
was frustrated by growing physical incapacity. Had he 
been as zealous in the disposing and presentation of his 
material as he was in seeking and bringing it together, 
this History — doubtless in less complete form — would 
have been, long ere this, an accomplished fact. 



324 



FOREWORD. 



As it is, Mr. Dale has left behind a vast store of 
information which will require considerable sifting, 
arranging and editing before it is in order for publication. 

It is hoped, however, that instalments of the History 
may be given to the public from time to time. The 
reception accorded to the present venture will afford 
some indication as to the favour which similar publica- 
tions are likely to meet with at the hands of present day 
Yorkshire Congregationalists. It will be a disappoint- 
ment to us, as Mr. Dale's literary Executors, if its success 
does not bear some corresponding relation to the labour 
and skill which have been expended upon it. 

For this expenditure, as for the whole-hearted way in 
which the task has been undertaken and carried out, we 
tender to the Rev. T. G. Crippen our sincere and 
emphatic thanks. 



James Gregory. 
George Hunsworth. 
George S. Smith. 



Bradford, 

December, 1909. 



EDITOR'S PREFACE, 



The History of Evangelical Nonconformity naturally 
falls into two main divisions, that of " The Old Dissent," 
and that of the Churches which grew out of the Methodist 
Revival. The former is, in fact, the history of Puritanism 
in its later developments, after the great schism which 
was consummated by the Act of Uniformity. 

With but few exceptions the Presbyterian and Con- 
gregational Churches of the seventeenth century owed 
their origin to the labours of ministers who had been 
ousted from their benefices, fellowships, &c, at the 
Restoration, or were ejected two years later for lack of pre- 
latic ordination, or for declining to affirm their " unfeigned 
assent and consent to all and everything contained and 
prescribed " in the Book of Common Prayer. The number 
of these is roughly estimated at rather over than under 
two thousand ; of whom 155 were ejected in Yorkshire, 
and 64 others were variously connected with the county. 

The first attempt to collect memorials of these Puritan 
Confessors was made by Edmund Calamy, in an Appendix 
to his " Abridgment of Baxter's History of His Life and 
Times," of which a second edition appeared in 1713, 
while the victims of reactionary intolerance were still 
represented by several aged survivors. A " Continuation " 
of this work was published in 1727. 

I n *775 Samuel Palmer published a condensed edition 
of Calamy's work, embodying the Continuation, in two 
vols., under the title of" The Nonconformist's Memorial "; 
and a greatly improved edition in three vols, appeared 
in 1802. This still remains our most important treasury 



EDITOR'S PREFACE. 



of information about the ejected ministers, and is not 
likely to be wholly superseded. 

But the diligent research which has been pursued by 
lovers of Puritan history, since the Bicentenary Com- 
memoration in 1862, has brought to light vast stores of 
material to which neither Calamy nor Palmer had access, 
and the very existence of which was unknown to them. 
The returns obtained by Archbishop Sheldon, now pre- 
served among the Tenison MSS. at Lambeth Palace; the 
documents relating to the Indulgence of 1672, now easily 
accessible in the Public Record Office; numerous MSS. 
in the British Museum, Williams's Library, and elsewhere ; 
the Diaries and Correspondence of such men as Heywood, 
Newcome, Thoresby, etc. ; innumerable Parish Registers, 
Church Books, Wills, and Private Letters, as well as 
many publications of acknowledged authority, make it 
possible to present a far more complete account of the 
" Fathers and Founders of Protestant Dissent " than has 
hitherto been offered to the public. Amongst those who 
have laboured to this end, none has been more patient 
and assiduous than the late Rev. Bryan Dale. 

Mr. Dale was a native of Cornwall, and in early life 
was a lay preacher in the " Wesleyan Methodist Associa- 
tion." Adopting the Congregational theory of Church 
polity, he became a student in the Western College, 
Plymouth, and graduated in the London University. 
In 1854 ne entered on his first pastorate at Coggeshall, 
Essex, the church founded by the great Puritan theologian, 
Dr. John Owen. While there he made his mark, not 
only by his pulpit ministrations and pastoral assiduity, 
but by his researches into Congregational history — toward 
which his bent may have been determined by his intimacy 
with that ripe scholar and laborious investigator, Rev. T. 
W. Davids, of Colchester. After nine years he removed 
to Halifax, where for twenty-three years he exercised a 
laborious and fruitful pastorate. Indeed, it is difficult to 
understand how he found time and energy for his varied 
activities, not only in the ministry, but in literature and 
in connection with the public life of the town and its 



EDITOR'S PREFACE. 



educational institutions. Resigning his pastorate in 1886, 
he devoted the best energies of his remaining years to 
the Yorkshire Congregational Union, of which he was 
chosen Secretary. " He had a rare combination of 
qualities which marked him out pre-eminently for this 
work — keen insight, a large grasp, and scrupulous 
accuracy in details, as well as quick and ready sympathy 
with ministers and churches." These qualities especially 
fitted him for the successful pursuit of his favourite 
recreation — Historical Research. Residing during his 
later years in Bradford, he was an active member of the 
Historical and Antiquarian Society of that city, for which 
he wrote several valuable papers. He also contributed 
papers of importance to the Transactions of the Con- 
gregational Historical Society. His first book, published 
in 1863, was "The Annals of Coggeshall"; his last, 
published in 1906, was a " Life of the Good Lord 
Wharton " — including an account of the origin, perversion, 
and restoration of that nobleman's * Bible Charity,' to 
the recovery of which Mr. Dale's own exertions has 
largely contributed. Mr. Dale died at Bradford on 30th 
July, 1907, in the seventy-fifth year of his age and the 
fifty-third of his minstry. 



T. G. C. 



6 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 



i. 

2. 
3- 

4- 
5- 
6. 

7- 
8. 

9- 

10. 
11. 
12. 

13- 
14. 

15. 
16. 

17. 

18. 
19. 
20. 
21. 
22. 
(?)• 
23. 
24. 

25. 
26. 
27. 
28. 
29. 
30. 
3i. 
32. 
33- 
34- 
35- 
36. 

37- 
38. 

39. 
40. 
41. 

(?)• 
42. 

43- 

44. 

45- 
46. 

47- 



Amgill, Christopher R., Treeton. 

Arlush, Stephen, M.A V., Howden. 

Armitage, Robert Ch., Holbeck. 

Ashley, William (?) Rastrick. 

Atkinson, — .. .. .. .. Leeds Grammar School. 

Awkland, John . . Letwell. 

Barnes, David R., Birkin-on-Aire. 

Baycock, James (?) South Cave. 

Bentley, Eli, M.A V., Halifax. 

Benton, William EL, Thornscoe. 

Birkbeck, Thomas R., Ackworth. 

Bloom, Matthew C, Sheffield. 

Blount, or Blunt, John, B.A R., Hollym. 

Booker, or Bowker, James . . . . C, Sowerby. 

Bovill, Francis . ^ Ch., Bramley. 

Bovill, John or Jon. .. .. .. Monk Fryston. 

Bowles, Edward, M.A. .. .. York Minster. 

Boyard, or Byard R., Wheldrake. 

Buckle, Buckley, or Bulkley .. .. P.C., Guiseley. 

Burdsell, Thomas P.C., Selby. 

Calvert, James, M.A V., Topcliff. 

Calvert, Thomas, M.A York Minster. 

Carmitchell, or Carmichael, John .. Ch., Thoresby. 

Cart, J., or William .. .. .. R., Hansworth. 

Charman, Stephen, M.A R., Hemsworth. 

Clark, Peter, M.A R., Kirby Underdale. 

Clayton, Luke V., Rotherham. 

Colewhone, or Colquhoun, James .. V., Ganton. 
Constantine, Henry, M.A R., Moor Monkton. 

Coore, Richard Ch., Tong. 

Cornwall, Ralph Skipsea. 

Cranford, or Crawford .. .. V., Bugthorpe. 

Crooke, John, M.A P.C., Denby. 

Crossley, Jeremiah, M.A Ch., Bramhope. 

Cudworth, Nicholas (?) C, Beeston. 

Darwent, Isaac Ch., Stannington. 

Dawson, Joseph Ch., Throxton. 

Denton, John Oswaldkirk. 

Denton, Nathan P.C., Bolton-on-Dearn. 

Donkinson, John P.C., Sand Hutton. 

Dury, David P.C., Honley. 

Ell wood, Samuel V., Bishopthorpe. 

Etherington Morley. 

Evanke, George Great Ayton. 

Everard, Hugh .. P.C., Hickleton. 

Fairfax, Henry, M.A R., Bolton Percy. 

Ferret, Joseph, or Joshua .. .. V., Pontefract. 

Fido, Anthony V., Hemingborough. 

Fisher, James V,, Sheffield. 

(Flaxton, see Plaxton) 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 



Ministers Ejected in Yorkshire (continued). 

48. Foresight, — (?) "East Hepsley." 

49. Fox, Thomas (?) Easington. 

50. Gargrave, Cotton V., Kippax. 

51. Garnet, John, M.A. .. .. .. Leeds Grammar School. 

52. Gunter, John, LL.B V., Bedale. 

53. Haines, — P.C., Walton. 

54. Hancock, Rowland .. .. .. V., Ecclesfield. 

55. Hardcastle, Thomas, B.A. . , .. V., Bramham. 

56. Hawden, William .. .. .. V,, Broadsworth. 

57. Hawksworth, Thomas, M.A Ch., Hunslet. 

58. Hepworth, John . . . . . . C., Let well. 

59. Heywood, Oliver, B.A .. Ch., Coley. 

60. Hibbert, Henry, D.D Hull (Trinity). 

61. Hide, John C, Slaithwaite. 

62. Hill, Edward R., Crofton. 

63. Hill, Matthew P.C., Thirsk. 

64. Hill, Nicholas .. V., Burstwick. 

65. Hill, Stephen (?) Beverley. 

66. Hobson, John, M.A R., Sandal Parva. 

67. Holdsworth, Josiah, B.A P.C., Nether Poppleton. 

68. Holdsworth, Josiah (2) .. .. P.C., Sutton. 

69. Holmes, Barham, M.A. .. .. R., Armthorpe. 

70. Hoole, John .. C, Bradfield. 

71. Hulston, — (?) Edlington. 

72. Ingham, — Uncertain : W.R. 

73. Inman, — R., High Hoyland. 

74. Issott, John P.C., Nun Monkton. 

75. Jackson, Christopher (1) . . . . Uncertain. 

76. Jackson, Nathaniel V., Barwick-in-Elmete. 

77. Jennison, — . . . . . . . . (?) Osgodby. 

78 . Johnson, Thomas . . . . . . V., Sherburn-in-Elmete. 

79. Kaye, William V., Stokesley. 

80. Kennion, Roger . . . . . . . . C, Ripponden. 

81. Kirby, Joshua Lect., Wakefield. 

82. Lambe, Nathaniel V., Alne. 

83. Laughthorn, or Langthorne, Simeon P.C., Boynton. 

84. Law, Thomas R., Sigglesthorne. 

85. Lecke, Thomas P.C., Barlby. 

86. Lee, Obadiah (?) Warmfield. 

(?). Lister, — Giggles wick. 

87. Lloyd, — Ch., Farnley. 

88. Lucke, William P.C., Bridlington. 

89. Marsden, Gamaliel Ch., Southowram. 

90. Marsden, Jeremiah V., East Ardsley. 

91. Marshall, Christopher V., Woodchurch. 

92. Medcalf, Alexander . . . . . . V., Stillington. 

93. Mekal, or Michel R., Setterington. 

94. Micklethwafte, Thomas, M.A. . . R., Cherry Burton. 

95. Milward, John R., Darfield. 

96. Milner, Jeremiah, B.A V., Rothwell. 

97. Moore, Edmund . . . . . . Ch., Baildon. 

98. Moorhouse, Henry .. .. .. R., Castleford. 

99. Nesbitt, Philip R., Kirklington. 

100. Nesse, Christopher, M.A Lect., Leeds. 

101. Noble, John, M.A R., Kirk Smeaton. 

102. Ord, — R., Cowsby. 

103. Packland, John Uncertain. 

104. Pecket, Philip V., Lastingham. 

105. Peebles, — Uncertain. 



8 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 



Ministers Ejected in Yorkshire [continued). 



106. Perrot, Richard, B.D York Minster. 

107. Pickering, Robert, M.A. .. .. Ch., Barley. 

108. Plaxton, or Plackstone, John .. R., Scrayingham. 

109. Pomeroy, John P.C., Barmby-in-Marsh. 

no. Prime, Edward C, Sheffield. 

in. Procter, Anthony, M.A. .. .. V., Well. 

112. Procter, Charles V., Whitkirk. 

113. Rathband, Nathaniel R., Ripley. 

114. Richardson, Christopher, M.A. .. R., Kirkheaton. 

115. Richardson, Edward, D.D Ripon (Col. Ch.). 

116. Robinson, John Ch., Rastrick. 

117. Robinson, Joseph R., Cottingham. 

118. Roote, Henry Ch., Sowerby. 

119. Roote, Timothy Ch., Sowerby Bridge. 

120. Ryther, John North Ferriby, S. 

121. Sale, James, M.A Lect., St. John's, Leeds. 

122. Sampson, — .. .. .. .. Ch., RawclifF. 

123. Scargill, — Ch., Chapelthorpe. 

124. Scurr, Leonard Beeston. 

125. Sharp, Thomas R., Adel. 

126. Shaw, John, M.A Hull (Trinity). 

127. Shaw, Joseph Ch., Worsborough. 

128. Shemhold, — V., Osmotherley. 

129. Sherborne, Robert, M.A. .. .. V., Cawood. 

130. Sincleare, Henoch R., Slingsby. 

131. Smallwood, Thomas .. .. .. V., Batley. 

132. Smith, Joshua .. .. .. .. V., Little Ouseburn. 

133. Spofford, John V., Silkstone. 

134. Stables, — Chapeltown. 

135. Stevenson, Anthony .. .. .. R., Rous. 

136. Swift, Henry V., Penistone. 

137. Taylor, Richard.. Great Houghton. 

138. Thomas, Gilbert V., Stillingfleet. 

139. Thelwall, John R., Whiston. 

140. Thorpe, Richard Hopton, S. 

141. Todd, Cornelius, M.A V., Bilton. 

142. Todd, Robert, M.A P.C., St. John's, Leeds. 

143. Towne, Robert Ch., Haworth. 

144. Waite, Thomas V., Wetwang. 

145. Wales, Elkanah Ch., Pudsey. 

146. Walton, — V., Kirkby Malzeard. 

147. Warham, Richard Silenced in Yorkshire. 

148. Waterhouse, Jonas, M.A C, Bradford. 

149. Whitehurst, Richard V., Laughton. 

150. Williams, Peter York Minster. 

151. Wilson, George V., Easingwold. 

152. Wilson, Joseph V., Beverley St. Mary. 

153. Wilton, Joshua, M.A R., Thornhill. 

154. Wood, Ralph Ch., Saddleworth. 

155. Wood, Timothy V., Sandal Magna. 

(R.:* Rectory; V.-Vicarage; Ch.=Chapelry; C.^Curate; P.C.=« Perpetual Curate; 

S. = Silenced.) 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN OTHER COUNTIES. 



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12 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 



I. 

MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 

i. AMGILL, Christopher (died about 1662), ejected 1660 
from the Rectory of Treeton, four miles from Rotherham. 

He followed Sherland Adams, a sequestered royalist, 
of whom an account is given in Hunter's Hallamshire. 
It is stated in the Parliamentary Survey (1650) that " Mr. 
Sherland Adams, the late parson, was cast out for 
delinquency, and allowed £7 per annum. Mr. Amgill is 
rector, an able, preaching minister." He signed the 
Vindiciae Veritatis, or West Riding Ministers' Attestation 
in favour of a Presbyterian organization of the National 
Church, 1648 ; also a Memorial, objecting to the Engage- 
ment, December 17th, 1649; and continued at Treeton until 
the Restoration, when he gave place to the former rector. 
He was a man of good abilities and likely to be very 
useful, but died " beyond sea" soon after his ejection. 

[A Chr. Amgill was at Cherry Burton in 1661 ; see 

MlCKLETHWAITE.] 

ANISBETT, Phillip (see Nesbitt). 

2. ARLUSH, Stephen, M.A. (1623- 1682), ejected from the 
Vicarage of Ho wden, in the East Riding. 

He belonged to a family which had long dwelt in the 
old Hall, still standing at the west end of the village of 
Knedlington, near Howden, where he was born. He was 
educated at Peter House, Cambridge, and married at 
Holy Trinity Church, Hull ; the Register of which has 
the following entry : " 1656, October 21. Steven Arlush, 
minister of God's Word at Cawood, and Rebecca Taylor, 
living with Mr. Robert Moore, merchant." It thus 
appears that he was at one time at Cawood (before 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 13 

Robert Sherborne, who was ejected there). On the 
death of John Thompson (approved by the Westminster 
Assembly of Divines, May 6th, 1645, and buried at 
Howden, April 5th, 1659) Arlush was presented by Richard 
Cromwell, in the following form : 

" RICHARD, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, 
Scotland and Ireland and the dominions and territories thereunto 
belonging, to the Commissioners authorised by the Ordinance for 
the Approbation of Public Preachers or any five of them Greeting. 
We present Mr. Stephen Arlush to the Vicarage of Howden in our 
county of Yorke, void by the death of the last incumbent and to my 
presentation belonging, to the end he may be approved by them, 
and admitted thereunto, with all rights, members and appurtenances 
whatsoever, according to the tenor of the aforesaid Ordinance. 

" Given at Whitehall the 28th day of April in the year of our Lord 
1659." (Lambeth MSS. Presentations.) 

He was accordingly admitted May 6th, on the certificate 
of Edward Bowles, of York, Elias Pawson, of Ryther, and 
Gilbert Thomas, of Stillingfleet. 

Unable to comply with the terms of the Act of 
Uniformity he was ejected in 1662, and in the following 
year Thomas Picard, curate, is mentioned in the Register 
as " successor of S. A." Nathaniel Jackson, who had 
formerly been rector of Stonegrave, and who died at York 
in November, 1662, left to Stephen Arlush, of Knedling- 
ton, clerk, Thomas Waite, of Wetwange, and John 
Denton, of Oswaldkirk, £20 per annum for pious uses. 
It is said that after his ejection he commenced preaching 
privately in Howden. He spent the latter part of his 
life in York, where he died in January, 1681-2, and was 
buried at Howden. He was a man of singular abilities, 
an excellent preacher, and of a very public spirit ; he had 
a good estate and did good to many with it. 

One of the same name, perhaps his nephew, was 
lecturer at the Parish Church in 1670. There are two 
slabs in the floor of the transept : one in memory of 
Nicholas Arlush (April, 1673) legis procurator integerrimus 
iusttis et aequi tenacissimus ; the other of Stephen Arlush 
in hac ecclesia conscionator optimus. On visiting Howden 
in 1691, Thoresby found " no inscriptions save two 



14 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

moderns, for Mr. Arlush and Mr. Roote." The last- 
named was Timothy Roote (son of Henry Roote, of 
Sowerby), who was ejected at Sowerby Bridge, and after 
suffering much for his principles conformed and obtained 
the living of Howden, where he died soon afterwards 
(1687). 

Under the Toleration Act a meeting-place was built in 
the street leading to Booth Ferry ; but the records of the 
Quarter Sessions for the East Riding at this period are 
lost, so that it cannot be ascertained at what precise date 
it was registered. John Gould officiated therein from 
1700 to 1715, and was succeeded by James Mallinson, 
whose congregation numbered 100 persons. 

3. ARMITAGE, Robert (1611-1689), ejected from the 
Chapelry of Holbeck, near Leeds. 

He was appointed curate at this ancient chapel in 
1637, and became chaplain in the Parliamentary army. 
He was vicar of Rothwell in 1650 (where he is said by 
Walker to have succeeded Mr. Key), "a preaching 
minister and of good conversation " (Pari. Sur.) ; and 
signed in 1658, as minister of Holbeck, a certificate to 
Jeremiah Milner, on his presentation by Dame Mary 
Armine, the patroness of Rothwell,* 

After his ejection in 1662 he lived privately at Holbeck ; 
was much troubled on account of his supposed implica- 
tion in the Farnley Wood Plot (1663) ; on the passing of 
the Five Mile Act (1665) retired to some obscure place 
near Halifax. Though some watched for an advantage 
against him, says Calamy, he was never imprisoned. 
Under the Declaration of Indulgence (1672) returned to 

* Lady Mary Armine (1594-1674) was daughter of Henry Talbot (fourth 
son of George, Earl of Shrewsbury), from whom she inherited Monk 
Breton Priory ; and widow of Sir William Armine, Bart., a Parliament- 
arian, who died in 1657. She was remarkable for her beauty and 
accomplishments, her piety and beneficence. In 1654 s ^ e founded aim- 
houses at Monk Breton ; in 1662 gave £500 to Nonconformist ministers ; 
and by her will left a rent charge of £44 per annum for ninety-nine years 
for their benefit, to be employed in Derby, Huntingdonshire and 
Yorkshire. 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. i 5 



Holbeck, where he had licence for a Presbyterian meeting 
at Lillbury House, and died April 20th, 1689, a Memorial 
Tablet of him being placed in the old chapel. He was a 
pious man, and a plain, useful preacher ; a man of spirit, 
yet sober, solid and peaceable, of great zeal for God and 
against sin ; so far was he from a party spirit, that it was 
never known whether he was Presbyterian, Congrega- 
tional or Episcoplian. 

4. ASHLEY, William, 

Is mentioned by Calamy as silenced at Rastrick, a 
chapelry of Halifax, where, however, he was not in 
charge (see Acct., p. 818, Cont., p. 569). But there is 
no trace of such a person ; and the name of Ashley is 
often confused with that of Astley (see Astley, Richard). 
Heywood mentioned a John Robinson as silenced at 
Rastrick. 

5. ATKINSON. 

Calamy (Cont., p. 1,005) savs that he was ejected at 
Leeds Grammar School. 

6. AWKLAND (or Oakland). 

A Nonconformist minister of this name, a native of 
Leeds, is mentioned by Christopher Nesse and Oliver 
Heywood as having been sent to York Castle for preach- 
ing, and as dying there of fever in April, 1675. He was 
probably John Aukland, who had an augmentation of £60 
as minister at Letwell (Laughton) in 1658 (December 
17th). 

7. BARNES, David, ejected in 1660 from the Rectory of 

Birkin-on-Aire, two miles from Pontefract. 

In 1648 he signed the West Riding Ministers' Attesta- 
tion, as " Minister of the Gospel at Brotherton," a 
neighbouring parish. It is stated in the Parliamentary 
Survey (1650) that " Mr. Everingham Cressy is rector of 
Birkin-on-Aire, David Barnes is his curate, a painful 
(painstaking) minister " ; at this time " Edmund Brooke, 



16 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

a constant preaching minister," was at Brotherton. 
Walker says that the predecessor of Barnes at Birkin, 
Mr. Thornton (Robert Thornton, M.A.), was plundered 
and imprisoned at Cawood Castle, survived the Restora- 
tion, and repossessed the living. 

8. BAYOCK, James (c. 1645-1737), is said by Calamy to 
have been silenced at South Cave, nine miles west of 
Hull. 

According to Torre, John Seaman, M.A., was instituted 
to this vicarage in 1638, and succeeded, April 27th, 1662, 
by Richard Remington. " Mr. Bayock," it is said, " had 
a University education, but was only an occasional 
preacher when the Act of Uniformity took place, and not 
fixed in any living; but joined with the Nonconformists, 
and was for many years a preacher at South Cave, and 
trained several for the Ministry." But the earlier part 
of this statement is manifestly incorrect; for in his will, 
dated March 12th, 1732, he says that he had been preach- 
ing the Gospel for more than forty years, which would 
make the commencement of his preaching to be about 
1690 ; so that he could not have been silenced in 1662. 
Moreover, he would have been too young to be preaching 
at this date ; for he was buried September 29th, 1737, 
11 being above 90 years of age, and supposed to be the 
oldest minister in England"* (Northowram Register). 
He might, however, have been a student at one of 
the Universities, aet. 17. He probably first taught a 
school, and about 1690 began preaching as a Noncon- 
formist. He appears to have purchased an old tithe barn 
and converted it into a meeting-house. In 1702 he 
conveyed to Trustees a house and piece of ground in St. 
Katherine's Yard, near his chapel, for the purpose of 
erecting a stable thereon ; doubtless for the accommoda- 
tion of horses and vehicles belonging to members of his 

* Query, is 90 a mistake ; we find one James Bayock, son of 
Thomas Bayock, of York, barber, admitted to St. John's College, 
Cambridge, June 15th, 1667, aet. 18. If this were the man, he would be 
88 in 1737. 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 17 



congregation, while attending service. In 17 15 the con- 
gregation numbered 400. He received aid from Lady 
Hewley's Charity in 1728 and 1729 ; and May 30th, 1730, 
he put the chapel and premises in trust " to be used and 
employed as a Chapel or Meeting House for religious 
worship for such persons as are or shall be known or 
distinguished most commonly by the name of Presby- 
terians." "God knows," he says in his will before 
mentioned, " I never sought riches by being a Noncon- 
formist ; but exposed myself to poverty and persecution, 
as many others have done." His remains were interred 
behind the chapel or in the orchard thereto adjoining. 
He was succeeded by Thomas Hickington and others ; 
and the present chapel was erected on or near the site of 
the old building in 1873. 

In 1710 a house of John Chappel was certified at the 
Quarter Sessions for Protestant Dissenters; also the 
house of Matthew Eppington ; and in 1716 the house of 
Robert Langhorne. In the Register of the Archbishop 
of York we find : " Ordered that a house at South Cave, 
standing on a piece of ground called Catherine's Close, be 
licensed for a meeting-house for Protestant Dissenters," 
April 22nd, 1718. 

9. BENTLEY, Eli, M.A. (1630-1675), ejected from the 
Vicarage of Halifax in 1660. 

He was son of Richard Bentley, of Sowerby Dene 
in the parish of Halifax, and born at a house called 
Bentley Hollins, in Sowerby ; educated at Trinity College, 
Cambridge (where Oliver Heywood was a fellow student) ; 
B.A. 1650, M.A. 1654, and Fellow of Trinity. He 
returned to Halifax June 13th, 1652, as assistant to 
Robert Booth, who had been appointed vicar (June 25th, 
1648) after the sequestration of Dr. Marsh, a royalist 
delinquent. A certificate of his ordination in connection 
with the Manchester Classis was signed June 15th, 1653. 
He succeeded Booth at his death in 1657. 

At the Restoration he gave place to the restored incum- 
bent. On the passing of the Five Mile Act he went to 
c 



1 8 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARL Y NONCONFORMITY. 

reside at Bingley (1666) ; under the Declaration of 
Indulgence had licence as a Presbyterian to preach in the 
house of Timothy Behtley (his brother) at Halifax ; 
preached a weekly lecture alternately with Heywood and 
Joseph Dawson at the meeting-house at Sbwerby erected 
by Squire Horton* ; often joined Heywood in holding 
private fasts, etc., in various places, but was deemed by 
him to be not very zealous in opening new meetings, 
saying "people will be tired out with preaching and it 
gives offence to adversaries." (Diar. III. 132.) He con- 
tinued his services without much interference until his 
death, which took place July 30th, 1675, in the forty-fifth 
year of his age. His remains were interred in the south 
chapel of the Parish Church, where a gravestone was 
laid with an inscription to this effect : He was a man of 
good abilities, of very humble behaviour, a solid, serious 
preacher, very useful in his place and much respected. 
He lived desired and died lamented. On his death-bed he 
remarked to a particular friend : " God will take a course 
with those unreasonable men that require such terms of 
communion as a man cannot with a safe conscience 
subscribe to." 

After his death some of his hearers met at Bank-top 
and elsewhere, and after the Act of Toleration built a 
chapel at Northgate-end, 1696. 

10. BENTON, William (1646-1688), ejected from the Rectory 
of Thurnscoe, seven miles from Doncaster. 

He was born at Whisket Hill, near Atherton (Moor), 
in the parish of Birstall, Yorks. ; admitted to Brazenose 
College, Oxford (as Bentom) in 1654 ; and to the rectory 
of Thurnscoe, by the presentation of Oliver Cromwell, 
Protector, June 16th, 1658, on the certificate of Thomas 
Birkbeck, of Arkworth, Stephen Charman, of Hemsworth, 
and Henry Tempest. There was previously at Thurnscoe 
(1650) a " Mr. Tim. Home, a preaching minister " 
(Pari. Sur.) ; and Walker mentions a Mr. Bell as a sufferer 



» Heywood heard him preach at his meeting, March 12th, 1673. 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 19 



there — probably, says Hunter, Edward Bell, who is 
referred to in Thurloe's State Papers in connection with 
an intended Royalist rising in 1653. 

After his ejection by the Act of Uniformity Mr. Benton 
took a farm for the support of his family, and afterwards 
followed the malt trade. Under the Declaration of Indul- 
gence he had licence as a Presbyterian to preach at his own 
house at Thurnscoe (June 10th, 1672). William Aspinwall, 
B.A., ejected at Mattersey, Notts., also occupied a farm 
at Thurnscoe; Mark Trickett, ejected at Gate Burton, 
Lines., resided with him ; and Jonathan Grant, ejected 
at Flexborough, Lines., had licence for his own house as 
a Presbyterian at Thurnscoe Grange. Benton subse- 
quently lived at Barnsley, where he was visited by Oliver 
Heywood (April 23rd, 1679) ; was prosecuted under the 
Conventicle Act in 1682 (Diar. II. 293) ; and died August 
22nd, 1688, aged 42. He was a man of ability and 
courage, and by his affability and cheerfulness main- 
tained good relations with the neighbouring gentry, 
whereby he was kept much out of trouble ; but he had 
not the same opportunities of preaching as many of his 
brethren. 

11. BIRKBECK (or Birbeck), Thomas (1614-1674), ejected 
in 1660 from the Rectory oiAckwovth, near Pontefract. 

He was son of Edward Birkbeck, B.D., rector of 
Staveley, Derbyshire, chaplain to Lord Darcy of Aston. 
He was born at Staveley; appointed assistant at the 
Parish Church of Sheffield in 1635, an d vicar in 1644 
instead of Edward Browne*, a royalist displaced on 
the surrender of the garrison to the Parliamentarians ; 
instituted at Ackworth, May 26th, 1646 (Lords' Journals), 
on the sequestration from Ashworth and Castleford of 

* Edward Browne was inducted March 23rd, 1644, witnessed by 
Thomas Barney (assistant), vicar in July but displaced in August; on 
the nonsubscription of James Fisher he returned, but ceded the living 
before October 30th, and was appointed by the Crown to Croftpn, near 
Wakefield, whence Edward Hill was ejected. 



V 



20 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

Dr. Thomas Bradley*; signed the West Riding 
Minister's Attestation in 1648, and a Memorial of 
Objections to the Engagement in 1649 ; also a certificate 
to William Benton, of Thurnscoe, in 1659. 

He was ejected in order to allow of the restoration ot 
Dr. Bradley in 1660, returned to Sheffield and resided 
among his old friends. He had licence under the 
Declaration of Indulgence to preach in his own house as 
a Presbyterian ; subscribed along with Edward Prime 
and John Wood a certificate of the ordination of Noah 
Ward (of York) at Sheffield; and died July 8th, 1674, 
when his remains were interred in the Parish Church- 
yard, where Durant (1678), Taylor (1680), Hancock 
(1684), Baxter (1697) and Prime (1708) were subse- 
quently laid. He was a very worthy divine and a solid 
substantial preacher ; one of a cheerful spirit, but much 
afflicted with the stone; and did much good. His wife 
had a good fortune ; she was the sister of James 
Creswick, ejected at Freshwater in the Isle of Wight, 
a native of Sheffield ; who after his ejection purchased 
the manor of Beage Hall, near Ferribridge, and six miles 
from Doncaster, where he lived and died. [A Peter 
Burbeck was a preaching minister at Ledsam, near 
Selby, in 1650; and a Christopher Birbeck, surgeon, 
died at York in 1717.] 

12. BLOOM, Matthew (1640-1686), ejected from the Parish 
Church, Sheffield. 

He was born at Brotherton, near Ferribridge ; 
educated at Magdalen College, Cambridge; appointed 
(1653) curate at Atterclifie (where Stanley Gower and 
William Bagshaw, notable Puritan ministers, had pre- 
ceded him) ; and assistant to James Fisher, the vicar 
(1655), along with Edward Prime and Rowland Hancock. 

* Walker has an account of Dr. Bradley ; and Thoresby says of his 
wife (Frances, daughter of Sir John Savile, of Howley Hall), that u she 
constantly wore a veil day and night, having made a vow no English- 
man should see her face, and according to the strictest account I can 
procure, she observed it until within six weeks of her death" (1649). 
(Diar. I. 153.) 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 



After his ejection by the Act of Uniformity he had 
licence as a Presbyterian to preach in his own house 
(November 18th, 1672), and also in the house of Arthur 
Powell, Attercliffe (May 29th). In 1676 he united with 
Rowland Hancock in forming a Congregational Church 
at Shiercliffe Hall, the residence of the latter, of which 
they were joint-ministers ; but on a division of the 
congregation he preached to the major portion thereof 
in a meeting-house at Attercliffe, and " to him was 
owing the formation of the old society of Dissenters in 
that populous hamlet " (Hunter). He was prosecuted 
under the Five Mile Act in 1682 and imprisoned in York 
Castle. In the latter part of his life, when persecution 
reached its height, he carried on the business of a 
maltster for the support of his family, and died suddenly 
at Sir William Ellis's (Bury's, Cal., 1st ed.), Wyham, 
Lincolnshire. 

" As he was rising out pf his bed he complained of 
pain in his arm ; and, growing sick, they were forced to 
carry him again to his bed, where he was no sooner 
laid than he cried, ' O what need is there to be always 
ready for death,' and so breathed his last April 13th, 
1686, aged 46." (Heywood.) 

After the death of Hancock and Bloom the congre- 
gation re-united at Attercliffe, and had the services of 
Prime and Baxter, and of students from Timothy Jolly's 
Academy at Attercliffe Hall ; but was ultimately dissolved 
(1750). 

13. BLUNT (or Blount), John, B.A., ejected from Hollym 
with Withemsea (Hilston Rectory), in Holderness. 

He matriculated at St. John's College, Oxford, 
February 20th, 1649 ; and was admitted to the vicarage 
on the presentation of Oliver Cromwell, Protector, July 
16th, 1658; the certificate being signed by Anthony 
Stevenson, of Roos, Samuel Proud, of Patrington, Caleb 
Wilkinson, of Hutton Bushell, Francis Proud, of Hack- 
ness, and Peter Clarke, of Kirby Overblow. The living 



22 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

was vacated in 1650 " pro defect of subscribing." 
(Poulson's " Holderness.") 

[" In 1663, as Mr. Lathley was setting out to preach 
at Kilnsea a certain Johnson, who doubtless belonged to 
the sect of the Quakers, called out to him many times, 
* Harry, art thou going to Kilnsea to tell lies, as thou 
hast done at Hollym. Repent, repent; the calamities 
draw near.' This same Johnson seized hold of one 
John Thompson at Hollym, 'gripte him and shakte him 
and tould him tythes should quickly be put downe, and 
if the Lord would put a sword in his hand wee should 
see they would fight the Lord's battle.' "] 

14. BOOKER (or Bowker), James. 

" Mr. Booker (curate at Sowerby), long time Non- 
conformist, lived at Blackley, in Lancashire, alas ! is 
too conformable in tippling and profane courses, as I 
am credibly informed, and is quite fallen off from 
preaching." (Heywood : Diar. IV. 322.) 

He was curate of Sowerby in 1672 (succeeded by Mr. 
Etherington, of Morley, who stood out a little while and 
then conformed). 

1673 Mr. Joshua Horton, who attended public ordi- 
nances at Sowerby Chapel, gave Mr. Booker minister 
there £8 per annum. (Heywood : Diar. I. 348.) 

Writing in 1676 Heywood says : " No minister at 
Sowerby since Mr. Bowker." 

It is added in " Our Local Portfolio," Halifax, " Mr. 
Bairstow had been preacher at Lightcliffe, and his and 
Mr. Sutcliffe's flight was pardonable compared with the 
exit of Mr. Bowker, of Sowerby, who had been banished 
for criminal conversation with a daughter of Mr. Farrer, 
of Gatelands " (No. xciii.). 

15. BOVILL, Francis (1625-81), ejected from the Chapelry 
of Bramley, near Leeds. 

He was appointed minister here after the death of 
Mr. Cudworth, in 1639. 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 23 

Calamy mentions Mr. Bovill, of Bramley, as being 
turned out and afterwards conforming ; but subsequently 
says (Continuation 957), " He was informed that he 
never conformed." Palmer, referring to Heywood's 
MSS., affirms that the former statement was correct. 

Heywood states that " Mr. Bovill, vicar of Rotherham, 
was buried April 12, 168 1, ag. 56." He also says, 
" Mr. Moorhouse, vicar of Rotherham, died August 5, 
1690; an old man, had been a Nonconformist eight 
years ; succeeded Mr. Bovil." And Thoresby says, 1692, 
January 5th, that he heard Mr. Bovil preach at the 
Parish Church, Leeds; and again, January, 1695, that 
he heard at Rotherham " Vicar Bovil, whose father 
was some time minister of Bramley in our parish " 
Diar. I. 217). This was John Bovil, of whom see below. 

16. BOVILL, John ( -1697), ejected from Monk Fryston. 

He was the son of Francis Bovill, sometime of 
Bramley. Heywood notes his ejectment (Diar. IV. 322). 
Palmer says he lived two years as a Nonconformist at 
Bramley, then conformed, and was curate at Sowerby 
(1668-70), and afterwards vicar of Rotherham. He 
succeeded Mr. Moorhouse there, and died in 1697. 

17. BOWLES, Edward, M.A. (1613-1662), ejected from the 

Minster at York in 1660.) 

He was son of Oliver Bowles, B.D., rector of 
Sutton in Bedfordshire, and member of the Westminster 
Assembly of Divines. Oliver Bowles published "Zeale 
for God's House Quickened : a Fast Sermon before the 
Assembly of the Lords, Commons and Divines," 1643 ; 
and wrote " De Pastore Evangelico Tractatus," which, 
Calamy says, " was not suffered to creep out in the 
time of rampant Episcopacy, not for any evil in it, but 
because some men do not care to be put upon too much 
work." It was published by his son in 1649 and 
dedicated to the Earl of Manchester. 



24 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

Edward Bowies was born at Sutton in February 
1613 ; educated at Catherine Hall, Cambridge, under 
Sibbes and Brownrigge ; and graduated M.A. He 
published, in 1643, " The Mystery of Inequity yet 
working in the three Kingdoms." He was at first 
chaplain to the Earl of Manchester, and afterwards to 
the forces under Lord Fairfax." " He it was who broke 
open the King's cabinet after the battle of Naseby, and 
took out of it the letters which he sent to Parliament ; 
£200 was voted to him for this service, which he laid 
out in a piece of plate on which he had engraven 
' Remember Naseby.' " (Hunter's MSS.*) 

In April, 1644, as many as twenty-four churches in the 
city of York were pastorless ; the vacancies not having 
been filled that parishes might be united. 

After the surrender of the city, July 15th, 1644, Bowles 
was appointed by Parliament one of four ministers 
at York Minster, approved by the Assembly of Divines, 
and paid out of the Revenues of the Dean and Chapter ; 
the other three being Thomas Calvert, M.A. (vicar of 
Holy Trinity, King's Court, since 1638), Nathaniel 
Rathband, M.A. (curate of Sowerby, approved by the 
Assembly of Divines in 1645), and Theodore Herring : 
(afterwards Peter Williams in the place of Rathband, 
and Richard Perrot, B.D., in the place of Herring.)t 
The plan was (the Book of Common Prayer and Choral 
Service being set aside) for two of them to preach at 
the Minster and two of them at All-Hallows on the 
Pavement alternately, and administer the Lord's Supper 
monthly at one of these places. J " Mr. Bowles kept a 
lecture every Tuesday in the morning at St. Peter's, 
and in that lecture went through the whole Epistle to 

*This I found in a manuscript memorial of one Peter Massey, of York, 
gentleman, sent to Charles II., in which he spoke of the zealous 
Parliamentarians in York. I saw it in a collection of letters of the 
period belonging to the Ormund family, in the library of Dr. Philip 
Bliss, June 3rd, 1850. 

t A tax was laid on the city for their support (Canon Raine). 

J An ordinance of Feb. 27th, 1643, authorised Lord Fairfax to supply 
the vacant pulpits in Yorks (Neal, II. 75)- 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 25 

the Romans. He preached his course at the Minster 
on the Wednesday lecture; and once a month at 
Tadcaster, where he was often set upon by the Quakers. 
He also lectured over both the Epistles to the 
Corinthians and the first of St. Peter, which were his 
last sermons and well worthy the light, but he was 
backward to print." 

He published in 1646 " Manifest Truth," a narrative 
of the proceedings of the Scotch army and vindication 
of the Parliament, in reply to a tract called "Truths 
Manifest " ; and in 1648 " Good Counsel for Evil 
Times," being a sermon on the text Ephesians v. 
15, 16, preached at St. Paul's before the Lord Mayor 
and Aldermen of the City of London. In that year the 
West Riding Ministers' Attestation in favour of Presby- 
terianism was signed by Calvert, Rathband and Herring, 
but not by Bowles, who, however, doubtless approved 
of it. A meeting of Presbyterian ministers was also 
held in York on the same day (April 6th) for dividing 
the West Riding into ten Classical Presbyteries; but 
that purpose was not carried into full effect. An 
augmentation from the sale of the Dean and Chapter 
lands was paid to Mr. Bowles and his colleagues, 
"ministers of the Cathedral Church at York, for 9 
months to Dec. 5, 1649, £450 " (Shaw, " History of 
the English Church "). 

He was one of the most eminent of the Presbyterian 
divines in the north of England. " He was indeed a 
great man, an excellent scholar, and one of more than 
usual prudence. He had a clear head and a warm 
heart. His preaching was very acceptable not only to 
his friends and followers, but to strangers, even those 
of a contrary judgment approved well of it, so that the 
very sequestered and decimated gentlemen were his 
hearers and were sometimes at his house, where in the 
evenings he was wont to repeat his sermons ; as Sir 
Charles Wyvel, etc. 

" Being a man of very great abilities, and those 
well cultivated with reading and meditation, he 



26 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

had a neat way of expressing his mind briefly 
and sententiously, but yet with plainness and very 
intelligibly. He had a clearness in his notions that 
made him utter them without obscurity. Besides, he 
did not spend his time about mint and cummin, etc., 
but with weightier things of the law and Gospel which 
have the greatest relish with sober minds. Several 
volumes of his sermons have been written from his 
mouth and are yet reserved as a treasure in York and 
usefully read in families. Repentance and faith in 
Christ and the other invariable truths of Christianity 
were his constant themes. He had also the reputation 
of a very prudent man in conversation. He was, indeed, 
something reserved to strangers, but open and familiar 
with his friends. He had a bias for goodness, and made 
it his endeavour to promote honest designs upon all 
occasions, so that he had frequent access to the 
magistrates of the city, promoting by their means the 
reformation of many disorders and without being seen 
in it himself; and, though he lay hid, it was said that 
he was the spring that moved all the wheels of the city. 
His prayers were of a piece with his preaching; for 
there were four things he mostly prayed for : that there 
might be sound doctrine, purity of worship, true 
Christian liberty and the power of godliness. He was 
also the mouthpiece of the rest when the country and 
city ministers had their quarterly meetings. 

" ' The glory of the north parts, York's right eye, 
His brethren's right hand, one who from on high 
Was furnished with incomparable parts 
For the instructing minds and warming hearts.' " * 

For the space of fifteen years he held a commanding 
position in York, and was in labours abundant. In 1654 
he was appointed one of the assistant commissioners for 
ejecting ignorant and scandalous ministers in the West 
and North Ridings, and one of the visitors of the 



* Richard Stretton, M.A., ejected at Petworth, afterwards chaplain to 
Lord Fairfax at Nun-appleton. 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 27 



proposed University of Durham, 1657. He signed a great 
many certificates of approval of ministers presented to 
parish livings ; took a prominent part in their ordina- 
tions, and witnessed the testimonial of the same. When 
Fox was on his first visit to Yorkshire (1651) he paid a 
visit to York. " Upon the first day of the week 
following," he says, " I was commanded of the Lord to 
go to the great minster and speak to priest Bowles and 
his hearers in their great cathedral. Accordingly, I 
went, and when the priest had done I told them I had 
something from the Lord God to speak to the priest 
and people. ' Then say on quickly,' said a professor 
that was among them, for it was frost and snow and very 
cold weather. Then I told them, this was the word of 
the Lord God unto them, that they lived in words ; but 
God Almighty looked for fruits among them. As soon 
as the words were out of my mouth they turned me out 
and threw me down the steps ; but I got up again 
without hurt and went to my lodgings." (Journal I.., 
104.) 

On February 3rd, 1655, he preached a sermon before 
the Lord Mayor, Stephen Watson, the Aldermen and 
Common Council of the city, and published it under the 
title of " The Dutie and Danger of Swearing Opened " 
(1655) — indicating the lawfulness of oaths against 
Anabaptists and Quakers, and showing the evil of 
common swearing, false swearing, unlawful swearing and 
the hasty taking of promissory oaths. In 1657 he wrote 
a letter to Secretary Thurloe, concerning the observance 
of Christmas Day, which the Puritans condemned on 
account of the superstitious and profane manner of its 
observance ; in which he said that in order to get infor- 
mation on " the mystery of the good time " he went to 
a public meeting place to hear one Mr. Geldart who 
was to preach on that day; where, instead of argu- 
ments, " I met with anathemas, he telling us that he 
doubted not to declare him a schismatic who did not 
observe Christmas, and further that he that denied to 
keep that day deserves not to live another day, &c, &c. 



28 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 



The person is inconsiderable for learning or life but 
serves to uphold * the enmity between the sects.' I 
have long desired and studied a way of his removal 
(knowing him to be incapable of doing much good in his 
place), but know not well how to accomplish it, save by 
a trial of his sufficiency, which is doubtful, for the office ; 
which if it fall not out will make the business worse, 
&c., &c." York, December 29th, 1657.* (Kenrick.) 

Previous to this time, Mr. Bowles was visiting Sir 
Harry Vane, the Independent ; at his taking leave Sir 
Harry followed him with a candle in his hand to the 
head of the staircase, and Mr. Bowles desired him not to 
give himself that trouble. "No," said Sir Harry, "I 
will see you down." " Indeed, Sir Harry," said Mr. 
Bowles, " I believe you would see us down," merrily 
intending that if Sir Harry might hold the candle all 
ordinances and forms of worship should go down with it. 
(Ambrose Barnes.) 

In common with most of the Presbyterians he was 
desirous of the Restoration of Charles II., expecting the 
settlement of the National Church on a Presbyterian or 
modified Episcopal plan ; and being on intimate terms 
with Lord Fairfax he entered into negotiations with 
General Monk in Scotland, which resulted in the 
General's marching into England without opposition. 
Lambert marched to oppose him, but his forces melted 
away in the presence of Fairfax at Marston Moor 
(January 3rd), where the first great victory of the Parlia- 
ment was achieved. It was essential that Monk on his 
march should obtain admission into York, and to this 
Mr. Bowles' influence with the magistrates and citizens 
greatly contributed. " As to this whole business, it is 
well known," says Calamy, "that he had a considerable 
hand in the management of it." Monk came into York 
January nth, 1660, at the head of his army, "riding on 
a gallant white horse betwixt two Presbyterian teachers, 

*John Geldart, who was minister at Holy Trinity, Goodramgate, in 
1650 (Pari. Sur.), and signed a certificate, with Bowles, Calvert and 
Williams in 1659. 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 29 



to whom he seemed to pay great regard." (Drake's 
" Eboracum ".)* One of these teachers was Mr. Bowles, 
who preached to the officers in the Minster on the 
following Sunday. Monk stayed five days, during which 
Mr. Bowles had frequent interviews with him. The 
intercourse between him and the General was very con- 
fidential. One day they dined together in the General's 
own chamber, while the principal officers and others 
were entertained at the public table by his chaplain, Dr. 
Price. 

In the night of the day on which Fairfax and the 
General dined privately together Mr. Bowles was sent 
for by his lordship to confer with the General, and they 
were in close conversation till after midnight. For 
about that time Dr. Price entering the chamber to go to 
prayer as usual found him and Bowles in very private 
conversation, the General ordering him to go out, but 
not to bed. After Mr. Bowles was gone he called the 
Doctor to him, commanding his servant to stay behind. 
He took him close to him and said, " What do you 
think ? Mr. Bowles has pressed me very hard to stay 
and declare for the King, assuring me that I shall have 
very great assistance." Lord Fairfax was at this time 
ill of the gout at Nunappleton where Monk visited him, 
and according to Brian Fairfax, was told by him that 
there was no peace nor settlement to be expected in 
England but by a Free Parliament, and upon the old 
foundation of Monarchy. This went beyond the address 
of the county of York, which was only for a Free Parlia- 
ment. A little later Mr. Bowles, Dr. Manton, Dr. 
Calamy and others accompanied Fairfax to Breda, as 
one of the Commissioners to invite the King back.f 

But the effect of the Restoration was the reverse ot 
what had been anticipated by Mr. Bowles. The " old 

* Marches of Monk: Jan. gth, Northallerton; Jan. 10th, Topcliffe; 
Jan. nth, York; Jan. 15th, Ferribridge; Jan. 28th, St. Albans ; Feb. 3rd 
London. Clarke Papers, Camden Socy., iv. xxiii. 

f Drake; Markham's "Fairfax"; Fairfax Correspondence iv. 169; 
Kenrick; Neal, iii. 254. 



3 o YORKSHIRE P URITA NISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

order" was restored with no alteration. Dr. Marsh 
took his place as Dean, to which he had been appointed 
by Charles I., on the death of Dr. Scott in 1646 ; and 
the Choral Service at the Minster was renewed. Mr. 
Bowles was removed from his post, being content to 
suffer with his brethren, and determined to adhere to 
his old principles, whoever veered with the wind and 
turned with the tide. Yet he still took his turn at the 
Wednesday lecture, preached at All Hallows and after- 
wards at St. Martin's. " Well, brother H.," said he, in 
a facetious mood, to a conforming friend whom he 
accidentally met, " How like you the Common Prayer ? " 
"Truly," said he "it is but dry stuff." "I always 
thought so," said Bowles, " and I suppose that may be 
the reason why our vicars-choral run to the alehouse as 
soon as they have done reading it ! " 

In April, 1661, he was nominated by many of the 
citizens of Leeds as vicar in the place of the old Puritan 
royalist, William Styles, recently deceased. " The in- 
genious Mr. R. Thoresby (to whom I acknowledge myself 
indebted for this and other material hints) hath in his 
collection of MSS. some sheets of original subscriptions 
of the inhabitants of that town and parish, and a tran- 
script of the magistrates' letter to the king and council 
concerning his election, &c, but through the favour of 
the times Dr. John Lake (afterwards Bishop of Chichester 
and one of the famous seven) was instituted into that 
vicarage." [Calamy.] Such was the strength of popular 
feeling in favour of Mr. Bowles that it is said Dr. Lake 
had to be inducted to his place with the aid of a regiment 
of soldiers. 

On February 20th, 1662, his wife, Mrs. Elizabeth 
Bowles, died, She was daughter of Sir Thomas Hutton, 
of Nether Poppleton, near York, and granddaughter of 
Archbishop Hutton ; born February 17th, 1619, and 
widow of John Robinson, of Deighton, near Wetherby; 
and her brother, Richard Hutton, of Poppleton, married 
a sister of Lord Fairfax. 

Urgent efforts, it is said, were made by Tillotson, 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 31 

Stillingfleet, and Wilkins to induce Bowles to conform, 
and the Deanery of York was offered to him in succession 
to Dr. Marsh, now a very old man ; but in reply to their 
solicitations he replied, " I can easily do enough to lose my 
friends, but I can never do enough to please my enemies." 
" When Mr. Bowles saw what impiety and sorrow was 
coming upon the nation, the prospect drove him out of 
London, and perhaps out of the world. The last visit 
he paid in town was to his old acquaintance, the Duke 
of Albemarle (General Monk). He spoke to him to this 
purpose : " My lord, I have buried the good old cause, 
and I am now going to bury myself. I never expect to 
see your grace more in this world, and therefore must be 
plain to say that you had greater opportunities than any 
other person to make the king happy and the people 
easy, and all this you have given up for a feather in your 
cap and a little trifling honour. But the Lord says of 
you as He said of Coniah (Jer. xxii. 30), ' Write this 
man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days, 
none of his seed shall prosper.' This title will be 
mentioned with a reproach to yourself, and after your 
son has had it a little while it will go out in a snuff 
[extinct in 1688] ." That day the good man went home- 
wards, and was met at Doncaster by several of the 
ministers in that county, and as one of the company 
told me himself, he bewailed what he had done, exhorted 
them to take care that they did not make shipwreck of 
faith, and a little time after died at York,* delivering 
those words not long before his death, ' Thou wast a 
God that forgavest their iniquities, though Thou tookest 
vengeance of their inventions.' When this passage was 
told to the Duke it gave him a great commotion, and he 
spoke like a person in sore distress, * This was a man of 
God, and none of his words shall fall to the ground.' " f 

* He still resided in the Minster Yard. 

t Thomas Bradbury Sermon, preached May 29th, 1715, when the 
kingdom was about to be invaded by the Old Pretender, afterwards 
printed under the title of EtKwv Bao-iAi/a), a Restoration Sermon ; text, 
Hos. vii. 7. (Appendix, p. 33.) 



32 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

The Act of Uniformity received the royal assent 
May igth, 1662, and was to come into force on St. 
Bartholomew's Day, August 24th. As the day approached 
Mr. Bowles was greatly troubled, and became seriously 
ill. When asked " what of conformity he disliked," he 
replied "the whole"; and soon afterwards died in the 
forty-ninth year of his age. " His mouth was opened 
above," says Calamy, "when they were about to shut it 
here below." A great concourse of people gathered to 
hear his funeral sermon, which was preached by Mr, 
Hunter from Philipp. i. 21. According to the Parish 
Register, " Mr. Booles was buried the 22 August, 1662, 
Mr. Hunter preatcht." " He lies in an unknown grave 
in the church of All Hallows in the Pavement, where the 
pulpit which he so often filled remains as in his day. 
Near him lie several of his companions upon whom the 
storm fell, and whose place of burial was probably 
selected that they might be close to their old friend." 
He left behind him four sons and one daughter. By 
his will, dated July 22nd, 1662, he gave to his fellow- 
labourers, Calvert, Williams, and Perrot, a piece of 
gold to buy a ring, and left one of his sons to the care 
of his worthy friend, Sir William Ayscough, of Osgodby, 
near Thirsk, and another to that of his nephew, Thomas 
Hutton. He wrote " A Plain and Short Catechism," 
with the motto, " I have fed you with milk and not with 
strong meat," 8th edition, 1676,* which came into 
prominence on account of the repetition of it being 
made a condition of participating in the benefits of 
almshouses founded by Dame Sarah Hewley, of York 
(1627-1710), and the evidence it afforded of her doctrinal 
sentiments in a notable suit-at-law, concerning the 
application of her charitable estate.f 

His three colleagues became Nonconformists. But it 
was not due to either of them that nonconformity 

* Reprinted in Calamy's " Continuation," and "James's History of 
Presbyterian Charities." 

t Will, dated July 9th, 1707. Codicil, August 21st, 1710. Suit begun, 
June 18th, 1830. Judgment of House of Lords, August 5th, 1842. 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 33 



obtained a permanent place at York ; but to Ralph 
Ward, M.A., who was ejected at Hartbourne, Durham, 
in 1660, came to York as chaplain to Sir John Hewley, 
obtained licence as an Independent for holding a meeting 
in the house of Brian Dawson, in Ousegate (1672), was 
imprisoned twelve months in Ousebridge gaol for holding 
a conventicle (1684-5), continued his labours in broken 
health till his death in 1691 ; shortly after which a 
chapel was erected in St. Saviour-gate (1692), where 
his son-in-law, Dr. Colton, long ministered. 

Mr. Bowles's portrait was very common in York : it is 
engraved in Hailstone's Worthies. The original was in 
1849 the property of Leonard Hartley, of Middleton 
Tyas, a collateral descendant. 

18. BOYARD (or Byard), ejected from the Rectory of 

Wheldrake, Holderness. 

Dr. George Stanhope, formerly rector, died in 1644, 
and Lord Howard wrote, December 17th, 1644, that his 
title to present was good, he had nominated Mr. Tindall, 
but he was not going, being otherwise engaged (Fairfax, 
Corr.). 

19. BUCKLE (Buckley or Bulkley), was ejected from the 

Perpetual Curacy of Horsforth, in the parish of 
Guiseley, near Leeds. 

He afterwards conformed. A Mr. Buckle (perhaps his 
son) was minister here seven years in Sundays, i.e. forty- 
nine years, 1670-1719 (Thoresby). 

A John Buckle, of Roedale, was admitted to St. John's 
College, Cambridge, October 15th, 1631, aet. 17. 

20. BURDSALL, Thomas ( -1686), was ejected from the 

Perpetual Curacy of Selby. 

He seems to have been related to a family of this 
name at Kirby Overblow. 

He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, of which 
also he was Fellow, when Dr. Winter (from Cottingham, 
near Hull) was Provost, 1651-1660; and he acknowledged 

D 



34 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 



the goodness of God in the many advantages he enjoyed 
in public ordinances and godly society there. He was 
presented to the living of Selby (where Richard Calvert, 
who replaced one Paul Hammerton, died in 1657) by 
Richard Cromwell, Protector, October 27th, 1658 ; and 
his certificate was signed by John Thelwell of 
Whiston, Edward Bowles, Gilbert Thomas of Stilling- 
fleet, Stephen Arlush, Nathaniel Jackson of Barwick-in- 
Elmet, Elias Pawson, John Kershaw and George Smith. 
On his ejection by the Act of Uniformity he became 
chaplain to Mrs. Hutton, of Poppleton (sister to Lord 
Fairfax, and widow of Richard Hutton, who died in 
1648), in whose family as well as the neighbourhood he 
was of great use by his example, prayers and preaching. 
In 1672 he had licence as a Presbyterian teacher to 
preach in " Hutton's house, Poppleton." Oliver Hey- 
wood, on visiting Mrs. Hutton, after his release from 
twelve months' imprisonment in York Castle, in Decem- 
ber, 1685, joined with him in religious service. He died 
the following year. He was of a blameless life, and very 
temperate, and any contrary reflections because of the 
flushing of his face, which was natural to him, were 
altogether groundless. 

21. CALVERT, James, M.A. (1630-1698), ejected from the 
Vicarage of Topcliffe, near Thirsk. 

He was son of Robert Calvert, a grocer and sheriff of 
York, and nephew of Thomas Calvert (see below) ; born 
in the Pavement of that ancient city, where also he was 
educated till fitted for the University ; admitted to Clare 
Hall, Cambridge, October 17th, 1646; B.A. 1648; M.A. 
1653 ; his tutor being David Clarkson, of Bradford, and 
his contemporary John Tillotson, of Sowerby, afterwards 
Archbishop. 

After his ejection by the Act of Uniformity he retired 
to York and lived privately, but not idly, for he 
studied hard ; had licence to preach in his own house 
there as a general Presbyterian teacher (May 21st, 
1672); and the same year published a book concerning 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 35 

the Ten Tribes, entitled "Naphtali; seu Collectatio 
Theologica de Reditu decern Tribuum, Conversione 
Judaeorum, et Mensibus Ezekielis," London, 4to. Having 
dedicated this work to Dr. Wilkins,* the tolerant Bishop 
of Chester (whose wife was a sister of Oliver Cromwell), 
he and Peter Williams waited on the Bishop at Scar- 
borough Spa; they were received by him with great 
respect, and encouraged to live in the hope of a com- 
prehension ; which Mr. Calvert lived long enough to see 
completely disappointed. About 1675 he became chap- 
lain in the family of Sir William Strickland, of Boynton, 
Bart., with whom he remained several years, educating his 
son, and preaching as he had opportunity. On July 19th, 
1683, he was indicted for Treason at York, for aiding the 
departure from England of suspicious persons, contrary 
to a Royal Proclamation. These were Sir John Cook- 
roon, Bart., who married Sir Thomas Strickland's sister, 
his son, and another gentleman who had visited Boynton; 
and Calvert was quite unaware that he had incurred 
danger by not giving information of their visit. On the 
death of Sir William and Lady Strickland he removed 
to Hull, and thence to Northumberland as chaplain to 
Sir William Middleton, of Belsay Castle (see Baxter, 
Nathaniel), where he preached constantly in the chapel, 
and acted as tutor to his only son, being very careful of 
his education both at home and at Cambridge. He was 
still tutor when Sir William died. (Sir John Middleton 
married Frances, daughter of John Lambert, of Calton in 
Craven, and died in London, October 17th, 1717.) Calvert 
survived until 1698. He was an ingenious as well as a 
pious divine, of a meek and quiet temper, and when he 
could not conform he submitted. He was a man of 
great reading and a good disputant. He had several 
colloquies with the Arminian party and the Church-men, 
many of whom by his learning and moderation he kept 
from flying too high in those points, so that they mostly 
fell in with Mr. Baxter in the middle-way. Many pious 

* For Wilkins see " Nonconformity in Cheshire," Urwick, p. 10. 



36 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 



conformists, as Mr. Christopher Jackson, Mr. Radcliff, 
&c, would have won him over to the Church, but he 
could not be satisfied with the answers returned to his 
objections ; so that with all his moderation he was 
a staunch nonconformist, for he would never be 
re-ordained, nor give assent and consent to all in the 
Liturgy, yet such as were of different sentiments loved 
and honoured him. He left his books and a large 
collection of manuscripts to his cousin, Mr. Harrison, 
Fellow of Sidney College, Cambridge. A letter of his to 
Dr. Lightfoot appears in Lightfoot's Works, xvi. 443. 

22. CALVERT, Thomas, M.A. (1606-1679), ejected from the 
Minster at York. 

He was a native of York, where his parents were of 
note for religion and trade. He was wont to say merrily 
at meals that he loved whitebread, for his father was a 
baker. He had his grammar school learning in his 
native city, and was a diligent and successful student of 
Sidney College, Cambridge. The learned and pious Mr. 
Bell was his tutor at the University. He was con- 
temporary both at school and in the University with 
Christopher Cartwright, of York, vir eruditissimus* On 
leaving Cambridge he became chaplain in the family of 
Sir Thomas Burdett, of Foremark, in Derbyshire, whose 
lady's funeral sermon, " The Weary Soul's Wish," he 
preached March 24th, 1637 (printed in York, with the 
addition of elegies, 1650). In 1638 he was instituted 
to the vicarage of Holy Trinity in King's Court, York. 
In 1645 he was appointed one of the four preachers at 
the Minster and All Hallows on the Pavement (see 
Bowles, Edward) ; and in 1648 he signed the West 
Riding Ministers' Attestation. He published (1647) 
" Heart Salve for a Wounded Soul " and " Eye Salve for 
a Blind World"; and (1648) " The Blessed Jew of 

* 1602-1658 : " A painful and constant minister, and performs the cure 
diligently" (Pari. Sur.). "To him belongs the honour of being the first 
who applied the more ancient writings of the Jews to the illustration of 
the Bible " (See " Diet. Nat. Biog."). 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 37 



Morocco," * with his annotations thereon, a book 
which first occasioned his being commonly called 
Rabbi Calvert. In 1650 he published " The Exalta- 
tion of Christ in the Days of the Gospel." He 
was appointed in 1654 an assistant commissioner for 
ejecting ignorant and scandalous ministers in the North 
Riding. In 1656 he published " Mel Coeli or Medulla 
Evangelii," an exposition of Isaiah liii., and afterwards 
a work against Popery, entitled " The Visitation of the 
Sick." Christopher Cartvvright at his death in 1650 left 
his papers on Rabbinical learning to Calvert, saying that 
he was the only person who could understand them. 

At the Restoration he continued to preach with Edward 
Bowles at All Hallows until Bartholomew's day, after 
which he lived privately at York. On the passing of the 
Five Mile Act he withdrew to the hospitable shelter of 
Lady Ursula Barwick (daughter of Walter Strickland of 
Boynton, and widow of Sir Robert Barwick, Recorder of 
York f), at Toulson, near Tadcaster, where Thomas 
Hardcastle, ejected at Bramham, had already found 
refuge. 

He was a pious, devout man and a profound preacher; 
his matter was excellent, but he was not very solicitous 

* * The Blessed Jew of Morocco, or a Blackamoor turned White, being 
a demonstration of the true Messias out of the law and the prophets by 
Rabbi Samuel, a Jew turned Christian, written first in the Arabic, after 
translated into Latin, and now Englished," &c. 

t Sir Robert died in 1660, aged 72, and was buried at Newton Kyme. 
Lady Barwick died October 4th, 1681, aged 81. Her only son was 
drowned in the Wharf e in 1666 ; her only daughter was married to Henry, 
fourth Lord Fairfax (first cousin of " the great Lord Fairfax "), and their 
daughter was married to Mr. Robert Staple ton (son of Sir Hugh Stapleton, 
the notable Presbyterian leader), of whom Oliver Heywood has the follow- 
ing note : " 1675, Sept. 8, was buried Mr. Robert Stapleton, a man of 
,£1,000 a year, barrister-at-law, a sober gentleman, who had married lord 
Henry Fairfax's daughter. 

"He was above 40, she only twenty years of age. My lord and the 
family were wonderfully well pleased with the match, delighted much in 
him. Lady Barwick, mother to Lady Fairfax, kept them. Mrs. Hutton, 
lord Thomas' sister, said she was glad there was a wise man married into 
the family. But he is gone ; it is not only their disappointment but a 
great loss to the country." (Unpublished MSS.) 



38 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY, 

as to method. He read and studied much, and had great 
acquaintance with the Jewish Rabbis. He had a reach 
in translating and expounding Scripture which was 
peculiar. He was buried in his study to the last ; but sore 
broken, spirit, body and estate, by an extravagant son, a 
merchant, and as much comforted on the other side in his 
brother's (Mr. James Calvert's) son. [Cal., ist edit.] 

In a letter to Thoresby, Timothy Hodgson, son of the 
old Parliamentary captain, John Hodgson, and chaplain* 
to Lady Hewley, wrote concerning him (April 15th, 1702) : 

" He was a universal scholar, a good grammarian, an excellent 
orator, an acute disputant, well skilled in the Latin, Greek and 
Hebrew tongues ; an able divine ... He was of little stature, had a 
large soul in a contemptible body, he was of a most serious yet merry 
temper, full of witty sayings ; bore all his afflictions, domestic and 
national, as a Christian and a minister. He was respected by all the 
learned here who had known him ; he had a very good library, but 
parted with most of them in the latter part of his life. He was 
sound in judgment, holy in life. In the Disciplinarian Controversy 
he was of Mr. Bell's and Mr. Baxter's judgment and practice. 
He was very communicative to all that visited him. He had all 
senses, understanding and memory to the last. 

" His last sickness was very short, not above two or three days. 
He had been at Lady Barwick's, got cold on his return home, fell 
into a fever and died. Animam efflavit et corpus deposuit et ad meliorem 
vitam transit. April 15, 1679, aged seventy-two, buried in Allhallows 
Pavement, his parish Church. He left several choice manuscripts, 
which are lost." 

He was a great encourager of learning ; and very 
useful by his prayer and counsel to many troubled spirits. 
He was the maul of heretics ; had several bickerings with 
Socinians and Formalists. His published works, beside 
those named above, are " The Wise Merchant, or the 
Peerless Pearl," 1660; "Meditations on Ps. xliii. 7 and 
Isaiah lvii. " ; 2nd edition, 1675 ; a Translation of " Schola 
Consolatoria," 1671. He also reprinted " Christianus 
Triumphans, Comedia Apocalyptica," by John Fox, &c. 
(1556), 1672. 

He was very poetical : wrote elegies on the death of 
Mr. Cartwright, Mr. Edward Bowles, and on the memory 
of Mr. George Wilson, his brother-in-law. 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 39 

A sheet of English and Latin verses printed. 

Another elegy, Latin and English, upon the much 
lamented death of Mr. Joseph Stopford, B.D., rector of 
All Saints, York, who died November 3rd, 1675, aged 39. 

Elegiacks on the memory of Sir William Strickland, 
of Boynton, Bart., with a Latin Epitaph. He died 
September 12th, 1673. 

(See also " Fairfax Correspondence " I. lxxxiii.) 

(?) CARMITCHELL (or Carmichael), John, 

Is said by Palmer to have been ejected from Thursby, 
which is two miles from Stokesley ; or, as Calamy says, 
Northumberland ; but no such church or chapel appears 
in the Liber Ecclesiasticus. Thursby is in Cumberland, 
between Carlisle and Wigton. 

23. CART, John ( - 1674), was ejected from the 

Rectory of Hansivorth, Sheffield. 

He was son of William Cart, M.A,, the Puritan rector 
(instituted 1627, died October 8th, 1644), whom he 
succeeded ; signed the West Riding Ministers' Attestation 
in 1648. " A godly and painful preacher " (Pari. Sur.). 

After his ejection he continued to reside in this obscure 
parish without molestation ; and to him Major Taylor, 
of Wallingwells, when sent to fortify Tangier, committed 
the care of his only son. He was faithful to his trust, 
and his pupil became a worthy gentleman, and a useful 
magistrate in the county. He was a "great scholar, a 
good man, a good preacher, a nonconformist, died in the 
beginning (8th) of September, 1674 — this is a great loss 
of him; being a useful man in these parts" (Heywood : 
Diar. I. 306). 

Walker says erroneously that some one was sequestered 
here. But Thomas Stanley was curate to the elder 
Cart, and settled in 1644 at Eyam, Derbyshire, where 
he gave way to the old incumbent at the Restoration, 
and continuing a nonconformist, was eminently useful 
there in the time of the Plague (1666). 



4 o YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

24. CHARMAN, Stephen, M.A. ( -1667), was ejected 

from the Rectory of Hemswovth, near Pontefract. 

He was educated at Oxford ; admitted to Baliol 
College, March 17th, 1627, M.A. April nth, 1633 ; 
presented by Charles I. on a lapse in 1636; signed the 
West Riding Ministers' Attestation in 1648, "a constant 
preaching minister" (Pari. Sur.). 

He was a good scholar, a very substantial divine, a 
pious, laborious and faithful minister, but not so success- 
ful in the ministry as some of his brethren. His son, 
also called Stephen, was rector of Liddeard Tregoze, 
Wiltshire. 

25. CLARK, Peter, M.A., was ejected from the Rectory of 

Kirby Underdale, in the East Riding. 

He was born at Beverley ; noted for his early pro- 
ficiency in a school there ; admitted at St. John's 
College, Cambridge, socius, March 31st, 1626, presented 
by Sir William Strickland, of Boynton, to Carnaby, near 
Bridlington, where he was useful in the ministry until 
the Civil War, when he was driven by the Royalists to 
London ; ordained June, 1643 ; and chosen member of 
the Westminster Assembly of Divines, as minister of 
Carnaby.* " A preaching minister " (Pari. Sur.). 

After the troubles he returned into Yorkshire, where 
he was beneficed at Kirby or Kirkby. But here some 
uncertainty appears. In 1658 Robert Johnson is men- 
tioned as pastor at Kirby Underdale ; and in the same 
year Peter Clark signed several certificates as " of Kirby 
Overblow," which is in the West Riding, about five 
miles west of Wetherby. But two years later this entry 
is found : — 

1660. Jer. Garthwaite MA rector K. Underdale vice 
Peter Clarke dec. Sep. 18. 12 C. II. patron. . . 

* Walker mentions a Caleb Wilkinson as sequestered at Carnaby ; but 
" 1646, May 20th, it was ordered that £20 be paid out of the impropriate 
rectory of Moulton, sequestered from Lord Ever, a papist, for the mainten- 
ance of Caleb Williamson (Wilkinson), minister of Carnaby," and in 
1658 Caleb Wilkinson signed certificates as minister of Hutton Bushel. 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 41 

Yet Peter Clarke was alive at Kirby when the Act of 
Uniformity displaced him. He then retired with his 
wife and four children to Walkington, near Hull, where 
he had a good estate which descended to him from his 
father. There he continued as long as he lived, teach- 
ing a private school and boarding young gentlemen, 
some of whom were great ornaments and blessings to 
the country. Heywood refers to a Mr. Clark, an ancient 
nonconforming minister near Hull in 1665 (Diar. III. 

93). 

" He was living in Holderness September 27th, 1677. 
What became of him afterwards I should be glad to 
know." (Cal., ist ed.) 

26. CLAYTON, Luke (1624-1674), was ejected from the 
Vicarage of Rot her ham. 

He was a native of Rotherham, and is spoken of as a 
prophet who had unusual honour in his own country, on 
account of his real worth and pious labours. He 
succeeded, though not immediately, the notable Presby- 
terian, John Shaw, M.A., who was driven away by the 
Royalist army in 1642 ; appointed by order of the House 
of Lords, November 13th, 1646 (Jour. VIII., 563) ; signed 
the West Riding Ministers' Attestation in 1648, and 
Memorial Against the Engagement, 1649. " A painfull 
preacher and of good conversation " (Pari. Sur.). 
Thomas Clark was his assistant in 1648, and at the 
same date Thomas Attwood, of Rotherham, was approved 
by the Westminster Assembly of Divines. He was an 
excellent disputant and very ready man, and for many 
years preached twice a day to a numerous congregation, 
and catechised the youth in public ; after which he 
constantly on Lord's day evening, about five o'clock, 
repeated the substance of his sermons. 

After Bartholomew's day, no successor having been 
provided, he continued his ministry in the Parish Church 
until the following January, when he gave place to the 
new incumbent. He was the first of the ministers sent 
to York Castle for nonconformity. He was indeed a 



42 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

very bold and resolute servant of Jesus Christ ; which 
occasioned his being several times imprisoned for six 
months together. He had no sooner obtained his 
liberty than he returned to his work. Heywood visited 
him at Rotherham in 1666 and 1668 (Diar. I. 259). 
Under the Declaration of Indulgence he had licence as a 
general Presbyterian teacher at his own house (April 
30th, 1672). The house of Samuel Clayton at Rother- 
ham was also licensed for a Presbyterian meeting (June 
15th). An application for a room or rooms in Trinity 
House, Greasborough, belonging to the Earl of Strafford, 
for the same purpose was not approved (June 29th). 
Mr. Wood, of Norton, in Derbyshire, a nonconformist 
minister (who died April 1st, 1690), " had been indulged 
to preach some time at Greasborough Chapel " (Hey- 
wood : Diar. II. 155) ; and it would seem that Mr. 
Clayton preached at Greasborough some years before 
his death. " On June 13, 1674, being Saturday night, 
Mr. Clayton, of Rotherham, an eminent minister in this 
county, died suddenly ; he had been to see Mr. Burbeck 
(Birkbeck) at Sheffield on Thursday ; walked abroad on 
Friday ; Saturday, several friends came to visit him 
that evening, with whom, as he was discoursing in his 
own house, he fell a coughing, vomiting blood, cried out 
* God be merciful to me, I am gone,' and died immedi- 
ately." (III. 137.) 

27. COLEWHONE (or Colquhoun), James, was ejected 
from the Vicarage of Ganton, near Hunmanby, in the 
East Riding. 

— 1654, May 19, Jas. Colewhole, Harome, augmentation 

ordered to be paid. 
— 1658, signed certificate to John Mawman, Whitby, 
Nov. 19 : — Jas. Colewhole, Smeaton (or Sneaton). 
Thos. Man, Northallerton. 
— 1658, signed certificate to Wm. Craig, of Lofthouse, 
June 23 : — Jas. Colewhole, Smeton. 
Jas. Calvert, Topcliffe. 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 43 



— 1660, Sept. 12 : — Marm. Mason, vice Jno. Cole- 
whole, 12 C. II. pat. Wright, Chr., rector of Smea- 
ton alias Sneaton [different places] fr. Sept. 12 
C. II. pat. 
[From these entries we may gather that in 1654 Mr. 
Colewhone (or Colquhoun) was at Harome, probably the 
chapelry of Ulrome in the parish of Barmston, East 
Riding ; that in 1658 he was at Smeaton, or Sneaton, 
from which he was outed in 1660 ; and that he afterwards 
obtained the vicarage of Ganton, from which he was 
ejected in 1662. Smeaton is about six miles north of 
Northallerton ; and Sneaton two miles south of Whitby. 
— Editor.] 

28. CONSTANTINE, Henry, M.A. (1614-1667), was ejected 

from the Rectory of Moor Monkton, seven miles from 
York. 

He was placed at Moor Monkton by order of the House 
of Lords, June 1st, 1647 (Jour. VII. 228 ; "an able preach- 
ing minister " (Pari. Sur.) ; signed certificate to Cornelius 
Todd, Bilton, January 19th, 1658. 

After his ejection in 1662 he continued to reside at 
Moor Monkton, died there, and was buried at Ripley, 
near Harrogate, where his son was rector. A tombstone 
within the altar rails has the inscription : " Henry 
Constantine, M.A., Rector of Moor Monkton, who died 
August 21, 1667, in the 53rd year of his age." He was 
,a pious and discreet man, a good scholar and a judicious 
preacher, very laborious in his Master's work while he 
had opportunity, and not without success. 

In 1662 Cuthbert Hesketh was presented to the rectory 
of Moor Monkton, " his predecessor not having sub- 
scribed " (14 C. II. pat.) 

29. COORE, Richard (1608-1687), was ejected from the 

Chapelry of Tong, in the parish of Birstall ; now in 
the city of Bradford. 

He was curate of Heptonstall, in the parish of Halifax, 
in 1645, and was in sympathy with the Antinomian views 



44 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

of Robert Towne, of Todmorden (1648), subsequently of 
Elland and Haworth. His wife was daughter of Robert 
Doughty, M.A., schoolmaster, of Wakefield. 

After his ejection at Tong he continued to reside there. 
According to a return made to Sheldon, Archbishop of 
Canterbury, in 1669, preparatory to a renewal of the 
Conventicle Act, there was a meeting at Tong " every 
Lord's day, in a stone delph there, of all sorts, very 
numerous, of the meanest sort of people [the leaders or 
teachers being] one Hartley, a weaver by trade [James 
Hartley, of Kildwick, a notable Antinomian], Mr. Nesse 
[Christopher Nesse, of Leeds], Mr. Hird [of EccleshiH, 
near Bradford] ." * Under the Indulgence, Coore had a 
licence for his own house at Tong ; and in the application 
for it he described himself as " of the true Christian pro- 
fession, not against Episcopal, Presbyterian or Indepen- 
dent, but called an Antinomian " (May 18th, 1672). He 
subsequently removed' to Leeds, and, like many other 
ejected ministers, devoted himself to the study and 
practice of the healing art. A true Bill was found 
against him at York for practising medicine with- 
out licence, May 1st, 1676 (York Depositions). He 
published a volume of over 800 pages entitled " Christ 
set forth in all Types, Figures and Obscure Places 
of the Scriptures; wherein are opened all Dreams 
and Visions in the Prophets, and the two Mystical Books 
of the Canticles and Revelations. By Richard Coore, 
Preacher of the Gospel, London, 1683." He does not 
appear to have assumed the degree of D.D. assigned to him 
by Calamy, who speaks of him as " a sober man and good 
scholar, much admired by the Antinomians, to whom 
he preached at Tong." In his Epistle Dedicatory to 
Charles II. he says : 

11 The God of mercies hath magnified your Majesty above others 
... for no other but that you may comfort and honour his 
afflicted ones. . , . They do not require that their way of 
Religion might be established and all others suppressed (as some 
Professors do), nor that a Toleration for all forms might be granted 

* See Jolly's Note Book, p. 14. 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 45 

(as others desire) ; they heartily desire that all Laws may be 
executed for the well governing of man amongst men ; they only 
beseech your Majesty that nothing might be brought into the Church 
but Christ crucified, which is the Power and Wisdom of God unto 
salvation ; for by it is man regenerated, made of a Sinner a Son of 
God ; without which man lies dead in sin, and can do nothing that 
is good and well pleasing to God. 

" It hath been the subtlety of Satan ever since the Gospel was 
first preached to persuade men that it is needful to join something to 
this Doctrine; whereby false Apostles first joined Circumcision and 
keeping of the Law; and all forms of Religion ever since have 
continued to join with it keeping of the Law ; some in one manner 
and some in another, that man's own righteousness which is of the 
Law may be upholden and the righteousness of God which is by 
Faith in Jesus may be cast out. 

" Wherefore the poor Church beseeches your Majesty still to 
maintain that True foundation Faith in Jesus . . . and to keep it 
pure from all mixture." 

He died at Leeds in 1687, according to the following 
entry in Heywood's Register : " Mr. Core, formerly 
preacher at Tong, a nonconformist that in this time of 
Liberty preacht in a Barn there, died December 14, aged 
near 80." (Calamy's first edition says he died in April, 
1688, aged about 70 ; while Palmer places his death 10th 
December, 1687, aged 71.) 

30. CORNWALL, Ralph, was ejected at Skipsea, Hol- 

derness. 

Although not mentioned by Calamy, he should prob- 
ably be placed among those who were ejected and after- 
wards conformed. He is mentioned as of Skipsea in 
1654, " one of Cromwell's usurpers" (Poulson's " Holder- 
ness ") ; and at Burton Pidsey in 1662. 

31. CRANFORD (or Crawford), was ejected at Bugthorpe, 

near Pocklington, in the East Riding. 

32. CROOKE, John, M.A. (1629-1687), was ejected from the 

Perpetual Curacy of Denby, in the Parish of Penistone. 

He was born at Sheffield, where his father, John 
Crooke, a cutler, was very prosperous and equally 
generous, statedly giving a tenth of his income to pious 



V 

46 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

uses. He was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge 
admitted sizar under Mr. Howe, June 27th, 1648, aet. 19; 
at first curate of the chapel at Ecclesall, Sheffield (1656), 
and afterwards (1659) of Denby Chapel (built in 1620, 
and licensed by Archbishop Toby Matthews, but not 
consecrated). His wife was widow of John Bridges, 
assistant minister at Sheffield in 1646. 

After his ejection he preached but seldom and privately. 
He was more fortunate than many of his brethren, for he 
had a good estate left him by his father, on the income of 
which he lived at Wakefield. He was there in 1684, 
when he was visited by Oliver Heywood. He was a sober 
and stout (staunch) man, very sound and orthodox, of 
good natural parts, active and vigorous, and very able to 
defend the truth with argument. It was said that he was 
of a somewhat penurious disposition. He was, however, 
a small benefactor of his native parish, the curate of 
Ecclesall enjoying 30s. per annum of his gift. Though he 
was but a spare and temperate man, he was long afflicted 
with the gout, which at last rose upward from his foot to 
his throat and choked him. " Mr. Crook, a nonconformist 
minister, formerly at Denby, lived long at Wakefield, 
died of the gout in his throat, January 9, 1687, aged 
53 " (? 58). (North. Reg.) 

33. CROSSLEY, Jeremiah, M.A. ( -1665), officiated in 
the Chapel at Bramhope, in the parish of Otley. [The 
" Nonconformists' Memorial " calls him Zachariah.] 

In 1654 Robert Dyneley, Esq., of Bramhope Hall, 
erected this chapel, which, with its endowment, he put 
in trust " for the maintenance of an able and godly 
minister." Crossley was Master of the Bradford 
Grammar School in the interval between 1643 and 1653 ; 
is mentioned as such in 1649, as minister in 1651, and as 
minister at Bramhope in 1653 ; and " Sockariah " 
(Zechariah) his son was baptized at the Parish Church 
at Bradford in 1656. 

He did not comply with the Act of Uniformity and 
may therefore be reckoned among the ejected. Under the 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 47 

protection of Mr. Dyneley he continued to minister in the 
chapel, and was often visited by Oliver Heywood (Diar. 
I. 192, 194). 

After his death in 1665 meetings were frequently held 
both in the Chapel and in the Hall ; but the Chapel was 
claimed and possessed by the Established Church. It 
still exists, but has not been used for Divine service for 
many years, a new Episcopal Church having been erected 
at a short distance from it (" Bradford Antiquary," July, 
1898). 

34. CUDWORTH, Nicholas ( -? 1664), is said to have 
been ejected at Beeston, in the parish of Leeds. 

He was at first minister in Lancashire, at Lightcliffe in 
Halifax Parish in 1648, and at Coley in 1649. He was 
succeeded there in the following year by Oliver Heywood, 
who says : " He was a good scholar and a holy man, as 
was hoped, and a good preacher; but so exceedingly 
melancholy that it obscured his parts and rendered him- 
self and labours less acceptable.* He was not at Coley 
above a year, yet would have gathered a church in the 
Congregational way," but was unable to do so ; " he then 
went to Beeston (1650), Ardsley (1652), Ossett (1653), 
and w r as not long resident anywhere ; was very poor ; 
built a house with difficulty upon the Common at Ossett, 
cast himself into debt ; travelled often to London about 
an augmentation, at last died ; left a widow and several 
children that are now got up, have shifted pretty well, 
live in Wakefield. In them God remembered his Cove- 
nant." (Diar. IV. 14.) The exact place where he was 
ejected or silenced is somewhat uncertain. Calamy says, 
" I have had repeated information from several credible 
persons that this Mr. Cudworth was the minister of 
Beeston and ejected from thence in 1662." But see 
Scurr. 

The following entries appear in the Register of Burials 
at Horbury, near Ossett : 

* The •■ Nonconformists' Memorial " has a story that at times he would 
be so absorbed in his topic that it became necessary to stop him ! 



48 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

J 653, Oct. 24 a still-born child of Mr. Cudworth. 
1656, Oct. 1, Rachel, daughter of Nicholas Cudworth, 

minister. 
1664, Mar. 4, Sarah Cudworth, daughter of Mrs. Cud- 
worth, of the Light's side. 
In 1656 and 1657 he was assisted from the " stock " of the 
Congregational Church at Woodchurch (West Ardsley). 
His widow died at Wakefield, September 17th, 1679, 
aged 63. 

35. DARWENT, Isaac, was ejected at Stannington, in 

Bradfield, a Chapelry of Ecclesfield Parish, Sheffield. 

This Chapel was built in 1652 or 1653 by Richard 
Spoone, and endowed with certain lands for the support 
of the minister. After Ralph Wood, 1652-5, and Robert 
Matthewman, 1655-7, Isaac Darwent was the minister, 
and he continued to preach there until silenced by the 
Act of Uniformity. After his ejection he was tenant of 
the Chapel-lands until 1665, when he was driven away 
by the Five Mile Act. What became of him afterwards 
is unknown. The Chapel was considered as under 
Episcopal jurisdiction, and his immediate successors 
were conformists ; but under the Act of Toleration it 
came into the possession of Protestant Dissenters 
(Hunter's " Hallamshire," p. 468). 

36. DAWSON, Joseph (1635-1709), was ejected from the 

Chapelry of Thornton, in the parish of Bradford. 

He was the eldest son of Abraham Dawson, of Morley, 
near Leeds, clothier ; educated at a school at Bradford, 
under Mr. Watkins, two years ; admitted to St. John's 
College, Cambridge, pensioner, April 26th, 1653, aged 
past 18 ; and became minister of the Chapel about 1657, 
where there appears to have been already formed a 
congregational society "in and about Bradford dale." 
In this, however, being of Presbyterian principles, he 
took no active part. 

After his ejection he lived at Landmier, Northowram, 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 49 

having married a daughter of Richard Best of that place. 
His residence was near that of Oliver Heywood, with 
whom he was on intimate terms and joined in holding 
religious services. 

He had licence as a Presbyterian teacher for his own 
house at Northowram, in Halifax Parish ; and preached 
in the Old White Chapel, Cleckheaton, in Birstall parish. 

He had also licences for his own house in the same 
parish (the Closes) and for "a new brick house in 
Briggate, Leeds." He continued for many years 
preaching at many other places in addition to these. 

About 1688 he became minister to the nonconformist 
congregation at Morley, which then held its services in 
a part of the old manse, and afterwards in the old 
Chapel of St. Mary's (in the parish of Batley). This 
had been leased to trustees by Lord Saville in 1650, 
but had been subsequently claimed by the Vicar of 
Batley. After the Act of Toleration it was restored to 
the trustees, and again used for nonconformist worship. 
Dawson died in June, 1709, aged 73. 

He was a pious and learned man, greatly esteemed 
for his integrity, prudence, humility and meekness; a 
hard student and an affectionate preacher, who naturally 
cared for the good of souls ; unwearied and very success- 
ful in his ministerial labours. He suffered considerably 
from the straitness of his circumstances, having a 
numerous family * ; yet he never repented of his non- 
conformity, but was patient and submissive and eminent 
for faith and self denial, and a living instance of real 
holiness for many years (John Dunton's " Life and 
Errors, * Panegyrick ' " p. 419). 

37. DENTON, John (1625-1708), was born at or near 
Bradford, ejected from the Rectory of Oswaldkivk, 
preached for some time as a nonconformist, and then 
conformed. 

He was educated at Cambridge, admitted to Clare 

* Calamy says he brought up four sons to the ministry ; the youngest 
of these, Eli, had seven sons, six of whom became dissenting ministers. 
E 



50 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

Hall, May 4th, 1646, sizar and pupil to David Clarkson. 

Here he contracted a lasting friendship with Tillotson, 

afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, to whom he was 

of material service during a very severe illness. He was 

B.A., Oxford (from Clare Hall, Camb.) 1647, and incorp. 

M.A. July 12th, 1653. After his ejection at Oswaldkirk, 

adjacent to Stonegrave, near Helmsley (where Tillotson 

preached his first sermon), he remained a nonconformist 

for some years. He had licence as a Presbyterian for a 

meeting in the house of John Sturr, Osgoodby Grange, 

near Thirsk, and at Newton, in the parish of Stonegrave 

(May 16th, 1672). After that date he conformed, was 

re-ordained by Dr. Thomas Barlow, Bishop of Lincoln, 

and presented to the living of Stonegrave — to which 

" having become void by the nonconformity of the last 

incumbent " (? Elias Pawson), William Meade had been 

presented by Charles II. (November 20th, 14 C.II.). He 

had also a prebendal stall in York Minster. There is 

some account of him in the Memoirs of Dr. Comber. 

He held the living until his death, in the 83rd year of 

his age, on January 14th, 1708, as appears from the 

tombstone in Stonegrave Church. " Denton," says 

Baxter, " was a very pious man and a profitable 

preacher." He published some religious and polemical 

tracts. 

38. DENTON, Nathan, B.A. (1633-1720), was ejected from 
the Perpetual Curacy of Bolton-upon-Dearne, nine miles 
from Rotherham. 

He was born in Bradfield Chapelry, of the parish of 
Ecclesfield, Sheffield ; brought up at Worsborough Gram- 
mar School; admitted to University College, Oxford, 
1652, matriculated March 17th, 1654, B.A. October 15th, 
1657 ; had as his tutor Thomas Jones, whom Wood calls 
a " zealous person for carrying on the righteous cause." 
Leaving the University he taught a free school at 
Cawthorne, in the parish of Silkstone, and preached for 
the minister there, and at High Hoyland once a fortnight 
alternately. He was ordained at Hemsworth in the 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 51 

Presbyterian manner in 1658, " in order to serve High 
Hoyland parish." Thence he removed to Derwent 
Chapel, in Derbyshire; and about 1660 to Bolton-on- 
Dearne, where he married Anne Burley on February 
6th, 1661. 

After his ejection he preached for a year at Hickleton 
(where Hugh Everard was ejected) by the encouragement 
of Lady Jackson (sister of Sir George Booth, Lord 
Delamere, and wife of Sir John Jackson). He subse- 
quently preached as he had opportunity in Yorkshire and 
Derbyshire, residing at Bolton, except when compelled 
by persecution on two occasions to remove for the space 
of two years together. He often preached at Great 
Houghton, in the parish of Darfield (where Sir Edward 
Rodes had built a domestic chapel in 1650) ; and had 
licence to preach at the house of Silvanus Rich at 
Bullhouse, Penistone, May 8th, 1672, as a Congrega- 
tionalism He also preached at various other places 
besides those just mentioned, and received assistance 
from funds provided for poor ministers.* He was one of 
the few of the first race of nonconformists who were 
living when Calamy published the first edition of his 
account of them in 1713. His wife was buried at Bolton, 
January 25th, 1714 ; and he himself died October 12th, 
1720, aged 87, " being the last that we heard of the 
Ejected Ministers of 1662 " (" Northern Register "). He 
was the picture of an old Puritan ; a man of an unblame- 
able life, who maintained his integrity to the last. He 
had several offers of good livings in the Church ; but he 
refused them and declared that he never repented of his 
nonconformity. His son Daniel was minister of Bull- 
house Chapel, erected in 1692, where in 1715 he had 
a congregation of 200 persons. A Memorial Tablet in 
the Chapel reads : " Six feet east from this stone lieth 
the body of the Reverend, pious and learned Daniel 
Denton, Master of Arts. He was minister here 28 years. 
He died February 18, 1720." 

* " Lady Armine, 1698, £1 10s." — Heywood, Diar. III. 275. 



52 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

39. DONKINSON (or Donkerson), John, was ejected from 

the Perpetual Curacy at Sand Hutton in the parish 
of Thirsk. 

He had licence as a general Presbyterian teacher near 
York, May 13th, 1672. 

40. DURY (or Drury), David ( -1692), was ejected from 

the Perpetual Curacy at Honley, in the parish of 
Aldmondbury, near Huddersfield. 

He was a native of Scotland ; appears to have been 
ordained at Gorton, in Lancashire ; whence he came to 
Honley after 1650 (when William Horwood was there, 
" a painfull preacher " : Pari. Sur.). After Bartholomew's 
Day he still continued to preach at Honley for a while 
(Heywood : Diar. I. 184). When preaching at Shadwell, 
near Leeds, January 15th, 1666, he was apprehended by one 
Newzam, a Leeds bailiff (I. 200) ; he was in Lancashire 
September 15th, 1668 (I. 258) ; and in Yorkshire Decem- 
ber gth, 1678 (II. 79) ; soon after which he returned to 
Scotland, died at Edinburgh, and was buried in Grey 
Friars Church, February 16th, 1692. He was eminent 
for piety and for his gift in prayer.* 

41. ELLWOOD, Samuel (1620- ), was ejected from the 

Vicarage of Bishopthovpe, near York. 

He was son of Francis Ellwood, of Hull, deceased ; 
born at Marfleet ; educated at a school at Hull (Mr. 
Stevenson), three years ; admitted to St. John's College, 
Cambridge, sizar : surety, Mr. Nicholson, June 13th, 1635, 
aet. 15. The living was vacant in 1650, " the vicar 
being dead " (Pari. Sur.). Ellwood was presented by 
Richard Cromwell, Protector, November 19th, 1658, his 
certificate being signed by Wm. Cole, Stephen Dockray 
and others. 

(?)ETHERINGTON, 

It seems doubtful whether this name can be rightly 
placed among the ejected ministers of Yorkshire. 

* A Mr. Dury was ejected at Bradshaw, Lane. (Palmer 2/357). 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 53 

William Etherington, of Gilling, is mentioned by 
Morrice as ejected. There is a certificate signed by 
him, "Gilling West, Feby., 1659." 

Christopher Etherington is spoken of as "ejected from 
Morley," but Calamy says he had been minister at 
Morley Chapel and conformed. 

In 1660 he went to Bramley to succeed Mr. Bovil, who 
left on account of his nonconformity, but did not 
continue there long. 

He appears to have been at Sowerby in 1678, February 
6th, when Heywood heard him preach there (Diar. 

n. 55). 

" Mr. Sam. Maud, of Sowerby (brother of Dr. Maud, 
of Halifax), was a bitter enemy to honest Mr. Ethering- 
ton, (being) a great Arminian, pleaded strenuously 
against predestination, for free will, universal redemption, 
falling away" (II. 265). 

" Mr. Etherington, minister of Sowerby, died suddenly 
on Jan. 4, 1679 ; purposed to preach the day after, was 
in his parlour, his wife going to fetch somewhat in 
the house, he was dead before or immediately after she 
came again ; though he had been weakly, melancholy, 
had much discouragement " (II. 166). 

42. EVANKE, George, was ejected from the Perpetual 
Curacy of Great Ayton, Cleveland. 

He was chaplain to the patron of the living, Sir 
George Marwood, Bart., of Little Busby (two miles 
distant). 

Among the " Collection of Sermons " printed in 1663 
there is one — and the only one from Yorkshire — 
" preached at Great Ayton by George Evanke, Chaplain 
to the Rt. Wor. Sir George Marwood, Bart., of Cleve- 
land." This sermon indicates considerable ability. A 
long quotation from it is printed by Palmer. Nothing 
further is known concerning the preacher. He may 
have continued to reside at Ayton, where a Presbyterian 
meeting-house was built soon after the Act of Toleration 
was passed. 



54 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

[The Nonconformist Memorial mentions one Eubank 
of Busby in Cleveland, but gives no account of him. 
Busby is a hamlet in the parish of Stokesley, not a 
benefice ; and the entry is no doubt a mistake. — Editor.] 

43. EVERARD, Hugh ( -1667), was ejected from the 
Perpetual Curacy of Hickleton, near Doncaster. 

He was the third son of Sir William Everard, of Much 
Waltham, Essex, Bart. ; educated at Emanuel College, 
Cambridge, of which he was Fellow; one of the assistant 
ministers at Sheffield in 1645 ; signed the West Riding 
Ministers' Attestation as minister of Worsborough 
(1648), " a constant preacher " (Pari. Sur.). 

On his ejection Sir John Jackson of Hickleton, Bart., 
took him and his wife into his family, he being chaplain 
and his wife housekeeper. He was an eminent divine, 
a solid preacher, of excellent abilities and very useful. 
In his will, dated March 1st, 1667, he is described as of 
Hickleton, clerk, and minister of the Gospel of Jesus 
Christ ; recites that he has in the hands of Sir John 
£500 placed out on the security of the manor of Bolton ; 
and leaves him 20s. to buy a ring as a token of his love. 
[See Mem. of Sir John Reresby.] 

44. FAIRFAX, Henry, M.A. (1588-1665) ; resigned the 
Rectory of Bolton Percy in 1660 on account of his 
Puritan sentiments. 

Although placed by Walker among his " suffering 
clergy," he should rather be counted among the ejected 
nonconformists. 

He was the second son of Thomas, first Baron 
Fairfax; uncle of Sir Thomas, third baron, "the great 
lord Fairfax " ; and father of Henry the fourth baron, 
and of Brian Fairfax. He was an alumnus of Trinity 
College, Cambridge ; but was admitted B.A. at Oxford, 
Fellow in 1608, and incorporated M.A. July gth, 161 1. 

He was rector of Ashton-under-Lyne from 1619, of 
Newton Kyme from 1633, and of Bolton Percy from 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 55 

1646 ; from 1645 to 1655 he held the prebend of Friday- 
thorp in York Minster. He was a friend of George 
Herbert, the poet; and in 1640 took part in an 
unsuccessful attempt to obtain a University for the 
North of England. 

In 1649 he lost his wife, Mary, daughter of Sir H. 
Cholmley, of Whitby. In the Parliamentary Survey 1650, 
he is miscalled Humphrey ; and is stated to be employing 
William Loyne as assistant. In this year he is described 
as " a warm-hearted and scholarly old clergyman." 

According to Markham ("Fairfax") he was looked 
upon as intrusive at the Restoration. He was induced 
to resign to a Mr. Wickham, son of a former rector, and 
retired to his private estate at Oglethorpe, near Newton 
Kyme, where he died April 6th, 1665, aged 78. He was 
buried within the altar rails of Bolton Percy church. 

45. FERRET, Joseph, or Joshua* (1599-1663), was ejected 
from the Vicarage of Pontefract, All Saints (anciently 
called the Minster of the North), near the Castle. 

The royalist vicar, Thomas Fothergill, having been 
displaced at the first siege of the castlet by the Parlia- 
mentarians (December, 1644, to March, 1645), and the 
Parish Church of All Saints "ruinated and demolished 
by the war " ; Mr. Ferret preached at St. Giles' Chapel 
in the market place, which was made the Parish Church 
by Act of Parliament 28, George III. He signed the 
West Riding Ministers' Attestation (1648), and in the 
Parliamentary Survey (1650) it was stated, " Mr. Joseph 
Ferret, a painfull, orthodox and pious minister is parson 
there, by confirmation under the great seal, whose pains 
have been extraordinary in the work of the ministry." 
The income of the benefice .was " not above £20 per an. 
these 3 years past " — 1647-1650. At the Restoration he 
gave place to the former incumbent ; and was hospitably 

* See Cal. Contin., p. 947. 

t There were twelve royalist ministers in the castle. The second siege 
was March nth to July, 1645 ; the third, at which Cromwell was present, 
was in 1648- 



56 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

received by Mr. Leonard Ward, at the old mansion 
called The Court, where he held religious meetings, and 
died in 1663, aged sixty-four. He was a constant, laborious 
preacher, of competent gifts and learning; was in 
great straits after his ejectment, but did not part with 
his library, which was a very good one. 

Walker says that the former vicar got back his 
living, but did not return to it, quitting it to Dr. 
Drake, " to whose assistance in this undertaking " (' The 
Sufferings of the Clergy '), says Walker, " I owe more 
than can be repaid him by this acknowledgment, though 
the most public one that I am capable of making him " 
(p. 150). " Samuel Drake, M.A., vice Joseph Firra res., 
presented April 6, 13 C. II. pat." Drake was son of 
Nathan Drake, of Godley, Halifax (the Diarist of the 
siege of Pontefract) ; who was educated at St. John's 
College, Cambridge, expelled from his fellowship for 
refusing the covenant, and was in arms for the king at 
Newark. He was, nevertheless, minister of South Kirby, 
near Pontefract, during the later years of the Common- 
wealth, "a painful preaching minister" (Pari. Sur.). 
His predecessor was George Beaumont, whom Walker 
places among his sufferers, and it was at his house that 
the plan of surprising the castle by Col. John Morris was 
discussed. " Mr. Beaumont, parson of Kirby, is appre- 
hended for holding cypher intelligence with the enemy 
in the castle, the matter is clear and I think the gallows 
will shortly have him" (Margetts). He was hanged 
before the walls of the castle, and buried at South Kirby, 
February 18th, 1649. At the Restoration Drake was 
created D.D. of St. John's College, Cambridge, by a 
Royal diploma, for his own and his father's loyalty, 
collated to a prebendal stall in York Minster and in the 
collegiate church of Southwell. He died in 1679, and 
was succeeded by his son Francis, father of the author of 
" Eboracum." 

46. FIDO, Anthony (1640-1715), was ejected from the 
Vicarage of Hemingbrough, five miles from Selby. 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 57 

He was born at Stamford-upon-Teeme, in Worcester- 
shire, August 20th, 1640 ; his father being a gentleman 
of considerable estate. He received his education at 
Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was deemed 
qualified for a fellowship, with a considerable living in 
the county of Cambridge ; but he lost these preferments 
at the Restoration, being then ready to take his degree. 

M He was resident in the house of Sir George Twistle- 
ton, of Kent, and a devisee under his will. Through the 
Twisletons of Barlow he was thus brought into close 
proximity to Hemingbrough, and it is by no means 
improbable that he officiated there for a while, although 
his name never appears in the parish books " (-V History 
of Hemingbrough," ed. by Raine, 1888). 

After Bartholomew's Day he was chaplain in a gentle- 
man's family, and preached in various parts of England. 
About the year 1684 he came to London and ministered 
to a small congregation in a hall, or room, near Pater- 
noster Row; where he continued his labours, with 
assistance in his later years, up to the time of his death. 
His tombstone in Bunhill Fields had this inscription, 
which seems, however, in some points of questionable 
accuracy : 

11 Here lieth interred the body of the Reverend and learned 
Divine, Mr. Anthony Fido, who till the year 1660 was a Fellow of 
Trinity College, Cambridge ; but soon after (his conscience not 
permitting him to comply with the Act commonly known by the 
name of the Bartholomew Act) he resigned not only his Fellowship 
but also a considerable living he was then in possession of in the 
County of Cambridge; and since that time he has continued a 
minister of the Gospel in several parts of England, but the last 
thirty years of his life in the city of London. He died a Bachelor 
on the 17th day of January, 1714-5, aged 75 years." 

He had an elder brother, John Fido, who was ejected 
from Whittlebury, Northamptonshire. 

47. FISHER, James ( -1667), was ejected from the 
Vicarage of Sheffield. 

In his younger days he was minister in London ; and 
joining with another it so fell out when the other 



58 YORKSHIRE P URITA NISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMIT Y. 

minister preached great multitudes flocked to hear him, 
whilst Mr. Fisher had very few auditors. Inquiring the 
reason of one of the parish he was answered, " Sir, you 
do but preach the old hum-drum doctrines of faith and 
repentance; but the other preaches Dispensation 
Truths." This, remarks Calamy, " much affected him, 
as it must needs do any man that hath to do with 
persons of a like stamp and character, who matter not 
ministers a rush, if their preaching suits not their vitiated 
palate." 

He was living at Clipsham, in Rutlandshire, in 1640, 
when he married Elizabeth Hatfield, sister of Anthony 
Hatfield, of Laughton-en-le-Morthen.* Owing probably 
to this connection he afterwards "succeeded worthy Mr. 
Towler [Thomas Toller] and Mr. Bright, and walked in 
their steps, preaching usefully and living exemplarily.f 
His immediate predecessor, however, was Thomas 
Birkbeck, who removed to Ackworth in 1646. 

He signed the West Riding Ministers' Attestation in 
1648. "An able, constant preacher" (Pari. Sur.). 
About this time his views on church-government appear 
to have undergone a change, and he became " Congrega- 
tional in his judgment." While still holding his office 
as vicar he formed an independent society or church, of 
which he acted as pastor before the year 1652. The 
year following he published a book entitled " The Wise 
Virgin ; or a Wonderful Narration concerning Martha 
Hatfield " (daughter of Anthony Hatfield, of Laughton), 
London, 1653. She was supposed to have made some 

* Another sister of Anthony Hatfield was wife of Stephen Bright, of 
Carbrook, Sheffield ; who was brother of John Bright, M.A., vicar of 
Sheffield, also father of Col. Sir John Bright, and Mary, wife of William 
Jessop, of Broomhall, the patron of the living. 

f Thomas Toller was vicar forty-six years (1589-1635), and after his 
resignation continued to reside in Sheffield till his death (1644). When 
a young man he was associated with Richard Clyfton, rector of Bab- 
worth, Notts., and subsequently pastor of the separatist church at 
Scrooby ; and in 1607 was presented before the Ecclesiastical Court at 
York on the charge of being "a Presciscian, if not a Brownist, no 
observer of the Book of Common Prayer nor any way conformable to 
order." (Hunter, " Waddington.") Bright was vicar from 1635 t0 x ^43- 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 59 

wonderful revelations in a state of trance. In 1654 he 
was appointed one of the assistant commissioners for 
ejecting ignorant and scandalous ministers in the West 
Riding. 

After his ejection by the Act of Uniformity he con- 
tinued to reside in Sheffield. Henry Newcome, of 
Manchester, says in his Diary, June 21st, 1663 : " Mr. 
Fisher designs separation, and courts all the apostates, 
and preaches up the Fifth Monarchy" (p. 194). He 
was harassed by incessant persecution. He was falsely 
accused of taking part in the so-called Farnley Wood 
Plot in 1663, in which year the constable's accounts for 
Sheffield contain the following entry : " Charges about 
Mr. Fisher, seekeing and carrying to Yorke £1 17s. 6d. " ; 
but no credible evidence against him being afforded he 
was released without a trial. 

He was summoned to the Sessions at Rotherham, 
Doncaster, Wakefield and Pontefract, and at two Assizes 
at York, on vague and indefinite charges ; but some of 
his accusers failed to appear and others refused to bear 
witness against him. It is said that a convicted 
murderer was offered his life and a sum of money if he 
" would swear treason against Mr. Fisher " ; but refused, 
saying " he knew no harm of him, and would sooner be 
hanged than perjure himself" ; and was hanged accord- 
ingly. In 1665 there were further rumours of a plot, 
and on account of it he was sent to York Castle. At 
this time there were above four-score prisoners there on 
the same account, including ministers, colonels, captains, 
&c., brought from all parts of the country. One of 
these, Capt. John Hodgson, of Coley, near Halifax, tells 
us in his Memoirs of several of them dying of fever ; of 
others keeping a Fast for London, then ravaged by the 
plague ; and of Mr. Fisher's sympathy and prayers with 
him in his own domestic trouble. The health of Mr. 
Fisher suffered much from his imprisonment, so that he 
did not live long after his release, which was procured 
by the interference of the Duke of Buckingham. Unable 
to return to his own house at Sheffield because of the 



6o YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 



Five Mile Act, he found a refuge with his brother-in-law 
at Laughton, where he was visited by Oliver Heywood, 
November 12th, 1666 (Diar. I. 233), and died there in 
the following January. 

He was a man of great piety and worth, an excellent 
preacher, and an instrument of much good. He often 
used to say to his children, " Take measure of yourselves 
when you are alone." A son of his was a doctor in 
practice at Sheffield ; a daughter was the wife of Timothy 
Jolly, minister and tutor ; a nephew, John Cromwell, 
was ejected at Claworth, Notts. 

His gathered church gave rise to the first society of 
Dissenters in Sheffield, which was under the care of 
Robert Durant, ejected at Crowle, Lincolnshire, who 
had licence as a Congregationalist to teach in " the 
house of Fisher" (1672). Before his death a chapel 
was built at Waingate (New Hall Street), 1678, which 
was replaced by the Upper Chapel, 1700. When the 
Upper Chapel was built, Mr. Thomas Hollis, of London, 
who always professed to owe much to the labours of Mr. 
Fisher, bought the " New Hall," and converted it into 
almshouses for his Charity. 

FLAXTON (108), ejected from Skevringham (Morrice). 
See Plaxton. 

48. FORESIGHT, was ejected from " East Hepsley " 

(Morrice). 

Either East Harlsey, near Northallerton (Wm. 
Robinson, Pari. Sur.), or East Haddlesey, a chapelry 
of Birkin-on-Aire, near Selby (Thos. Pickard, pres., 
October 27th, 1658). 

49. FOX, Thomas. 

There are conflicting statements as to the benefice 
from which he was ejected. Morrice says Elloughton, 
nine miles west of Hull ; Calamy (1st ed.) says Ellinton, 
which may be Elvington, six miles east-south-east of 
York, or Ellington, near Morpeth, Northumberland ; 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 6r 

Poulson says Easington, five miles south-east of Patring- 
ton. All are probably mistaken. Fox, who is described 
as " one of a holy life, and a good preacher," was pre- 
sented by the Lord Protector, on July 16th, 1658, to 
Seathorn, which is presumably to be identified with 
Owthorne, five miles north-east of Patrington, and 
adjacent to Withernsea. His certificate is signed by 
Francis Proud, Samuel Proud (Patrington), Robert 
Johnson (Bainton), Peter Clark (Kirby Underdale), 
Caleb Wilkinson (Hutton Bushell). His successor, 
Richard Coates, was presented 1661. 

50. GiVRGRAVE, Cotton ( -1682), ejected from the 
Vicarage of Kippax, five miles from Leeds. 

He is not mentioned by Calamy, but has been often 
spoken of as one of the nonconforming ministers. He 
was grandson of Sir Cotton Gargrave, owner of Nostell 
Priory, and was vicar during the Protectorate, after John 
Hart, "an able and painfull preacher" (Pari. Sur.), pre- 
sented by the late king. The Parish Register is wanting 
between 1643 and 1653. But in it the names of several 
of his family are found between 1653 and 1662 : 

1653. Nov. 17. Averill, daughter of Cotton Gargrave 

minister bur. 

1654. Sept. 21. Arthur, sone of Mr Cotton Gargrave 

vicar of Kippax bapt. 
1656. April 28. Thomas son of Mr C. G. min. bapt. 
1659. Oct. 17. Francis son of Cotton Gargrave 

minister of Kippax bapt. (see post.). 
In 1653 William Freeman was appointed registrar; 
he was son of John Freeman, clerk of Kippax, and 
admitted to St. John's College, Cambridge, as pensioner, 
February 12th, 1649-50, aet. 21 ; and the following entries 
were made by him : 

Everata filia Gulielmi Freeman twv ttcu&wv SiSao-xaAov 
sepulta fuit vicessimo die Decembris 1660 de 
pustulis sive variis, obiit suavissima mea Eve de 
exanthematibus. 



62 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

Franciscus filius Cottoni Gargrave verbi divini ministri 
sepulta est tertio die Jan., de eodem morbo obiit 
quo mea dulcissima Everelda (Jan. 2, 1661). 
1661. Feb. 24. Everata, wife of Cotton Gargrave 

minister, bur. 
Tombstones of Averell (1653) and the last-named are 
still in existence. [Leeds Mercury Suppl., Nov., 1894.] 

In 1662, November 25th, Thomas Hunt was presented 
to the living by Charles II., and continued till 1672. The 
last entry pertaining to the old vicar is 1681-2, March 13 : 
" Mr Cotton Gargrave sepult." It thus appears that he 
continued to live at Kippax about twenty years after his 
ejection. His son Thomas had a son Cotton baptised 
there in 1696. 

51. GARNET, John, M.A., ejected from the Free Grammar 

School, Leeds. 

He was educated at Christ's College, Cambridge; 
appointed master in 1G51 ; married a daughter of Robert 
Todd; ejected from St. John's Church, Leeds; and 
removed from his office in 1662, when Michael Gilbert, 
M.A., took his place. Calamy also mentions a Mr. 
Atkinson, assistant master, as ejected at the same time. 
Garnet was very useful in his station, and made above 
£100 per annum of his school, which furnished both 
Church and State with several eminent persons that 
were by him fitted for the ministry. Thoresby (born 
1658) speaks of his own education " in a private 
Grammar School at the north end of the great stone 
bridge," under the Rev. Robert Garnet, of Christ's 
College, Cambridge. 

52. GUNTER, John, LL.B. (1625-1688), was ejected from 

the Rectory of Bedale. 

He was a native of Berkshire; educated first in 
London, afterwards at Eton, whence he went to Queen's 
College, Cambridge (incorporated July 4th, 1648), where 
he took his degree of B.C.L., June nth, 1649, and was 
made Fellow of New College by the Parliamentary 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 63 

visitors in 1650. Here he was chamber-fellow with the 
learned Stephen Charnock, whose Memoirs he subse- 
quently wrote, and bursar to the College. He was also 
at St. John's College, Oxford (incorporated 1652). On 
the recommendation of Dr. John Goodwin, President of 
Magdalen College, Oxford, he became chaplain to the 
English factory of Merchant Adventurers at Hamburgh ; 
but not having good health, he remained only two years, 
and returned to his fellowship at New College, where he 
continued till he was presented by Lord Wharton to the 
rectory of Waddesdon, Bucks. Oliver, the Protector, 
hearing his name, which he said he respected for his 
uncle Major Gunter's sake, sent for him to preach before 
him, made him his chaplain, and preferred him to the 
rich living of Bedale. 

At the Restoration Charles II. presented Dr. Peter 
Samwaies (vice William Metcalfe, dec), August 28th, 
C. II. Gunter then removed to Whittlebury, in North- 
amptonshire, where he was silenced in 1662. He was 
hospitably received by Lord Wharton, and made his 
steward, residing at Healaugh, near Tadcaster, his 
lordship's Yorkshire seat. Like Charnock and Goodwin, 
he was a Congregationalist, and had licence as a Con- 
gregational teacher in his own house at Healaugh (1672). 
When at home (for his duties as steward required him 
to make frequent journeys) he preached constantly and 
gratuitously to the poor people of the neighbourhood. 
He sometimes also preached at Leeds. Thoresby heard 
him preach at Knaresborough Spa on August 6th, 1682, 
and says of himself that on that occasion he was " some- 
what disturbed with the sight of an informer who got 
cunningly into the meeting" (Diar. I. 130). Being 
acquainted with John, Earl of Rochester, he solemnly 
remonstrated with him on his reckless conduct, for 
which the Earl, when on his death-bed, expressed to 
him his deepest remorse. He himself died in London, 
November 27th, 1688, aged sixty-three, and was buried 
in the Wharton vault at Healaugh. He was a person of 
great learning and worth, and of fine abilities ; eminent 



64 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

for piety, prudence, and temperance, constant and serious 
in the devotions of the closet and the family ; and a great 
blessing in the places where he successively lived and 
laboured. 

Besides the Memoir of Charnock, he published " The 
Broken Heart; or Grand Sacrifice, on Ps. li. 16, 17," 
1643 ; " Britain's Remembrancer," 1644 ; " A Sovereign 
Remedy for a Sick Commonwealth," 1649 ; " The Princess 
Royal," 1650; and "The Just Man's Fall and Recovery," 
1681. 

He was brother to Humphrey Gunter, M.A., who was 
ejected from his fellowship in Magdalen College, Oxford, 
and also on intimate terms with Lord Wharton ; and his 
sister was the wife of Robert Hickson, an eminent non- 
conformist at Leeds, and was spoken of by Thoresby as 
" the flower of our female flock, a virtuous, good, holy, 
wise, prudent woman, of vast parts and abilities, and 
indeed above encomiums." (Diar. I. 97.) 

53. HAINES, was ejected from the Perpetual Curacy of 

Walton, two and a-half miles from Wetherby. 

This place was notable for its Roman Catholic 
tendencies (Speight: "Lower Wharfedale," p. 390). 
In the Parliamentary Survey it was stated, " Mr. Robert 
Chambers is incumbent there, a man of evil life and 
conversation, who preacheth not above four times a 
year, and he frequently useth the Book of Common 
Prayer " (1650). He was doubtless removed from his 
place. A John Haynes was preaching minister at 
Flambro' (Pari. Sur.), and Assistant Commissioner, East 
Riding. 

54. HANCOCK, Rowland ( -1685), was ejected from the 

Vicarage of Ecclesfield, Sheffield. 

He was at first an undermaster of the Grammar 
School at Sheffield ; on the death of Imanuel Knutton, 
November 28th, 1655 (who replaced Thomas Wright, 
M.A., presented in 1638 and sequestered in 1643), " a 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 65 

godly and well-deserving minister " (Pari. Sur.), he was 
appointed to this living. 

At the Restoration he vacated it for the former incum- 
bent. In the following year the Burgesses of Sheffield 
elected him as one of the assistants at the Parish Church 
(April 22nd, 1661), but subsequently chose Mr. Barney, 
who had been formerly an assistant ; he afterwards 
preached at Bradfield, where the Act of Uniformity 
silenced him ; he continued for some time in that neigh- 
bourhood, and often preached at Brookside, a very 
retired nook in that chapelry. 

He then became tenant of Shiercliffe Hall, Pitsmoor, 
Sheffield, and was accustomed to hold religious services 
therein. On the passing of the Five Mile Act he found 
refuge with Sylvanus Rich, of Bullhouse, Penistone. 
Heywood found him visiting Clayton, at Rotherham, in 
1666. When preaching at Alverthorpe, near Wakefield, 
May 31st, 1668, he was taken by two Justices of the 
Peace, one of whom was Mr. Copley, of Batley, and was 
sent with two other prisoners to York Castle, where he 
continued for some time (Diar. I. 255). He had licence 
as a Presbyterian teacher in his own house at Shiercliffe 
Hall (June 1st, 1672)* ; and in 1676 Matthew Bloome, of 
Attercliffe, joined him in forming there a Congregational 
church, of which they were joint pastors. 

On July 28th, 1676, a meeting was held at Shiercliffe 
Hall, when, after a sermon by Mr. Bloome, rules were 
drawn up for the guidance of the church, and signed by 
Rowland Hancock, Matthew Bloome, ministers. The 
persons who then joined the fellowship of the Church 
were : — 

John Hatfield . Joseph Capper 

Mrs. Antonina Hatfield Joseph Nutt 

Mrs. Hancock Robert Hool, tanner 

Mrs. Jennet Bloome Widow Hoole 

* Shiercliffe Hall was about a mile from Sheffield, on the way to 
Penistone. It stood on the top of a hill. Of the original edifice nothing 
remains ; but a good house has been built on or near the site, which still 
retains the name. (Hunter.) 
F 



66 YORKSHIRE P TJRTTA NISM A ND EA RL Y NONCONFORMITY. 

Wm. Hoole, cutler Mary Nicholson, widow 

Robert Hoole, his brother Hannah Cox 
Wm. Wordsworth Margaret Parkin 

Mary Wordsworth Margaret Sharp 

William Marsland John Oddie 

(Hunter : " Hallamshire," 288.) 
and thirty-four others immediately afterwards joined 
themselves to this society. 

Some dispute arising between Mr. Hancock and Mr. 
Bloome, the congregation divided, and Mr. Bloome 
became sole pastor of the church meeting at Attercliffe 
(Heywood : Diar. II. 98, 238), while Hancock continued 
services at Shiercliffe Hall. At the ordination of Timothy 
Jolly (who succeeded Fisher and Durant at Sheffield), 
Hancock, of Brightside, and Bloome, of Attercliffe, were 
both present and took part therein, April 26th, 1681. 

In the latter part of his life Hancock was seized with 
palsy, and languished under very painful disorders, which 
he bore with invincible patience ; died April 14th, 1685, 
and was buried at the Parish Church. He was a very 
pious man, of excellent natural abilities and tolerable 
learning, though he had not a University education. His 
sermons were succinct, methodical and elaborate. 

His daughter, Mary, married Joseph Banks (August 5th, 
1689), an attorney, of Sheffield (" Hallamshire," p. 394), 
who resided at Shiercliffe Hall, and became a member 
of Parliament for Grimsby and for Totness ; d. 1727, 
aged 62. Her descendant was the Rt. Hon. Sir Joseph 
Banks, Bart., President of the Royal Society. 

55. HARDCASTLE, Thomas, B.A. (1637-1678), wasejected 
from the Vicarage of Bvamliam^ four miles from 
Wetherby (but the " Dictionary of National Bio- 
graphy " says Bramley). 

He was son of John Hardcastle, yeoman, and born at 
Berwick-in-Elmet, near Leeds ; bred at Sherburn for two 
months (?), Mr. Ginnings, master; admitted to St. John's 
College, Cambridge ; sizar for Mr. Creswick ; tutor, Mr. 
Fogg, June 15th, 1652, aet. 15 ; he was also instructed 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 67 

by Nathaniel Jackson, of Barwick, "a godly, learned and 
painfull preacher" (Pari. Sur.) ; B.A., 1655. 

He was probably put into this living on the sequestra 
tion of George Hodgson, M.A., pres. November 9th 
1630 ; " no preaching minister, he sometimes hires Mr 
George Crosdale to supply, at 4s. a sermon." (Pari 
Sur.) 

At the Restoration he gave way to the former incum 
bent, and became chaplain to Lady Barwick, ofToulston 
Tadcaster (see Calvert, Thomas) ; " to whom," as he sub 
sequently wrote, " I must own myself to be much obliged 
and no less to the right honourable Lord Henry Fairfax 
her son-in-law, and my constant and faithful friend in my 
sufferings for Christ." He was but a young preacher 
when silenced by the Act of Uniformity, but was a man 
of good abilities and of a bold spirit, fearing no danger ; of 
great moderation and catholicity and his zeal provoked 
many. He was seven times imprisoned for Christ and a 
good conscience after his ejection. 

He preached for a time at Shadwell Chapel, in the 
parish of Thorner, near Leeds, in the absence of a regular 
minister. The Pari. Sur. states of Thorner, that Mr. 
Robert Sowell was then (1650) vicar, " a preaching 
minister, scandalous and supposed to be disaffected." 
In August, 1665, Hardcastle was apprehended at Leeds 
"for his public work " at Shadwell (Heywood : Diar. I. 
198). The warrant under which he and twenty-four 
other persons were arrested, he for preaching and they 
for hearing, was signed by Sir John Armitage of Kirklees, 
Sir John Kay of Woodsome, Francis White and J. N. 
(Slate's " Life of Heywood," p. 384). 

He was taken a second time in the following January 
and carried prisoner to York. During his absence Hey- 
wood frequently preached at Shadwell. 

On January 21st, 1667-8, he was again taken at a meet- 
ing at Leeds, and was visited by Heywood in the house 
of correction at Wakefield, who " dined with him in his 
reproachful prison," and they had much intercourse 
together (Diar. I. 248). 



68 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

Heywood again visited him in prison at Leeds, May 
27th, 1668 (I. 255). 

He suffered about eight months' imprisonment in York 
Castle ; and then, because he would not give bond not to 
preach any more, as some ministers his fellow-prisoners 
did to get free, he was carried thence out of his county 
eighty miles to Chester Castle, where he was kept fifteen 
months more close prisoner, when by an order from the 
King, through the intercession of Sir George Booth, 
Lord Delamere, he was released without bond. 

He then came to London in company with John 
Ryther, of Thornton, near Bradford (1669), and about 
this time he married a daughter of Lieut. -Gen. Gerard, a 
Baptist ; he himself became a Baptist, and joined the 
fellowship of the church of which Henry Jessey had been 
pastor. 

He was again arrested under the Conventicle Act and 
imprisoned for six months. 

On August 20th, 1671, he became pastor of the Broad- 
mead Baptist Church, Bristol, and ministered success- 
fully there for over seven years. 

" For the defence of the Gospel he was twice impri- 
soned at Bristol, two six months, still preaching as soon 
as ever he came forth and so continued till his death." 

He died of pneumonia, very suddenly, September 29th, 
1678 (Broadmead Records). 

As an instance of his catholicity of spirit in not making 
Baptism a term of Church-communion, as was done by 
many, it is stated that " when he visited his own country, 
upon being consulted by a relation of his as to whom he 
should join with he persuaded him to hold communion 
with Mr. Christopher Marshall (pastor of the Topcliffe 
Church, who died in 1673) rather than with the Baptists 
(Palmer, III. 527).* 

He printed two discourses of Richard Garbut, B.D. (a 
devoted assistant minister at Leeds Parish Church who 



* I doubt whether there was any Baptist Church in Yorks. at that time, 
before 1678. 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 69 



died in 1630), entitled, " One come from the Dead to 
awaken Drunkards " (1675), wltn a Preface by the Editor, 
in which he mentions his having many friends at Ponte- 
fract, Hull, Beverley, York, &c, to whom his labours 
had been useful; also an Epistle to the Reader by 
Richard Baxter. He also published a treatise on 
Matthew vi. 24, entitled, " Christian Geography and 
Arithmetic " ; and a Preface to Vavasor Powell's Con- 
cordance. 

One of the earliest members of the Topcliffe Church 
was John Hardcastle (d. 1664). It is believed that Mr. 
Thomas Hardcastle, the first Treasurer of the London 
Missionary Society, was one of this family. [Principal 
Authority, the Broadmead Church-Book.] 

56. HAWDEN, William (1615-1699}, was ejected from the 
Vicarage of Brodsworth, four miles from Doncaster. 

He was born at Holbeck, near Leeds. He signed the 
West Riding Ministers' Attestation as minister of Brods- 
worth (1648), also a Memorial against the Engagement 
(1649) ; and the Parliamentary Survey states that " he 
faithfully performs the cure." 

After his ejection he continued to reside at Brodsworth ; 
Hey wood travelled with him in his journey into Lan- 
cashire, September, 1666. After the passing of the Five 
Mile Act, he went to Sherburn-in-Elmet, where Thomas 
Johnson, M.A., was ejected (John Baynespres., September 
nth, 1662) ; and had licence as a Presbyterian to preach 
there " at a certain house called Whitehouse or any 
other " (May 9th, 1672) ; the house of Hiram Dufneld 
being also licensed (July 25th). On the recall of the 
licences he removed to Wakefield, where he lived during 
the remainder of his life, and preached both at home and 
abroad so long as he was able. 

He held meetings with Heywood in 1676, and was 
often visited by him in succeeding years. When the 
Duke of Monmouth landed in 1685, he was with many 
others sent prisoner to Hull, and thence conveyed to 
York Castle, where the Commissioners required him to 



70 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

find sureties for his good behaviour, which he peremptorily 
refused to do, knowing no occasion for it ; but the matter 
was compromised upon a friend's passing his word for him. 
Under the Toleration Act his house was certified as a 
place of meeting for Protestant Dissenters (July, 1689). * 
He took part in an Ordination Service at Alverthorpe 
the same year (September 4th) ; and was present at a 
meeting of ministers held at Mrs. Kirkby's for promoting 
a happy agreement between Presbyterians and Indepen- 
dents in 1691. For the last eight or ten years his sight 
failed him. He died August 26th, 1699, aged 84; and 
was buried in the burial ground of St. Mary's Chapel, 
Morley, where his gravestone bore the inscription, " The 
righteous hath hope in His death." He was a sound 
orthodox divine, a great hater of vice, a zealous promoter 
of what was good, and a man of great magnanimity and 
resolution. 

57. HAWKSWORTH, Thomas, M.A. ( -1667), was 

ejected from the Curacy of Hunskt Chapel (built in 1636). 

He was educated at Magdalen College, Cambridge; 
M.A., 1635 ; appointed curate of Hunslet in 1636 ; driven 
away by the royalist soldiers (Markham's " Fairfax," p. 92) ; 
signed the West Riding Ministers' Attestation in 1648 ; 
" a painfull minister " (Pari. Sur.) ; signed a certificate 
of the " Classical Presbytery" at Adel, near Leeds (with 
Elkanah Wales, Robert Todd and George Crosby), of the 
ordination of Thomas Johnson, then minister at Great 
Houghton (October 31st, 1655). 

The Act of Uniformity silenced him, and the Five Mile 
Act drove him from home, when he retired to Alverthorpe, 
near Wakefield, and died there November 13th, 1667. 
"Two eminent servants of God are dead," wrote 
Heywood, " Mr. Hawksworth, minister formerly at 
Hunslet, buried there yesterday, and Mr. Smallwood, 
formerly minister at Batley, buried this day ; the former 
died at Alverthorpe Hall on Saturday afternoon, Novern- 

* Also by him house of William Kirby, January, 1690. 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 71 

ber 23, the latter at Flansill (Flanshaw), November 
24, on Lord's Day in the afternoon ; not a quarter of 
a mile distant and not a day betwixt their deaths, this 
is November 26, 1667." He was an able, judicious 
preacher, and an instrument of good to many ; a good 
scholar, an excellent Hebrician, a pious man and of a 
very peaceable temper. His son Israel Hawksworth 
lived with him at Hunslet. 

58. HEPWORTH, John, was ejected from the Curacy of 

Letwell, in the parish of Laughton-en-le-Morthen ; 
and afterwards conformed. 

There was "no minister here," at the time of the 
Parliamentary Survey, but " Mr. Thomas Spencer, of 
Firbeck, supplies it." 

59. HEY WOOD, Oliver, B.A. (1630-1702), was ejected from 

the Chapelry of Coley, in the parish of Halifax. 

He was son of Richard and Alice Heywood; born 
at Little Lever, near Bolton, Lancashire, and baptized 
at Bolton Parish Church, without the sign of the cross, 
March 15th, 1629-30 ; trained up under Puritan influences ; 
admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge, July gth, 1647, 
and in due course graduated B.A. 

In 1650, at the invitation of the inhabitants of the 
Chapelry of Coley ("vacant," Pari. Sur.), he became 
their minister ; was ordained in the Presbyterian manner 
at Bury, Lanes., August 4th, 1652 ; and applied himself 
diligently to his pastoral duties. At first he resided at 
Landimere, Shelf; afterwards at Godley House, with his 
brother Nathaniel (who had become minister at Illing- 
worth Chapel in the same parish) ; and then in a house 
at Northowram, which, after some years' absence, he 
possessed as his own. While residing here (1655), he 
married Elizabeth, daughter of " holy and peace- 
able Mr. Angier," of Denton Chapel, Manchester. In 
1657 he made an attempt "to set up discipline," by 
admitting to the Lord's Supper those only who afforded 
evidence of personal piety; and with some difficulty 



72 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 



succeeded. The names of "such as sat down with us" 
have been preserved, numbering seventy-three. After 
the Presbyterian rising under Sir George Booth (1659), 
on behalf of Charles II., he was apprehended by Lilburn's 
soldiers ; but kept under confinement only a single night. 
After the Restoration (1660) he continued to minister 
at Coley Chapel, though he was much troubled for not 
using the Book of Common Prayer. He was thrice served 
with citations to appear at the Consistory Court at York, 
and suspended from exercising his ministry in the diocese ; 
the suspension being published in the Parish Church of 
Halifax, on Sunday, June 29th, 1662. Shortly before this 
he had been compelled to leave his house at Northowram, 
and had been deprived by death of his excellent wife 
(1661), who left him with two sons, John and Eleazer. 
When silenced by the Act of Uniformity, he was 
excommunicated by the Court at York, the sentence 
being read in the Parish Church, November 2nd, 1662. 
This sentence exposed him to severe penalties if 
he partook of the Lord's Supper, or even attended 
public worship. On going into Coley Chapel he was 
commanded by a churchwarden to avoid the place, and 
fined for staying away. Dr. Hook, the High Church 
Vicar of Halifax, treated him with much discourtesy 
and harshness, and when both were invited to dine at 
Shipden Hall, refused to eat with him as an excommuni- 
cated person. After preaching in Lancashire, a sentence 
of excommunication in the Diocese of Chester was read 
in Bolton Church, January 4th, 1663. His adversaries 
next obtained a writ to apprehend him ; but although 
it gave him some annoyance, it was not put into 
execution. He continued to preach in private; and 
often during the next few years ventured into the pulpits 
of various parochial chapels on the invitation of 
ministers or congregations. The following chapels are 
specified : — Idle (near Bradford) ; Bramhope (private 
chapel) and Pool (in Otley Parish) ; Cleckheaton Old 
White Chapel ; Honley and Slaugthwaite (near Hudders- 
field) ; Penistone ; Holmfrith ; St. Mary's Chapel, Morley ; 




OLIVER HEYWOOD. 



To face page 72. 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 73 

Bramley, Shadwell and Hunslet, near Leeds ; Glass 
Houghton (private chapel), and Coley. On removing 
from Northowram, as before mentioned, he resided at 
Norwood Green for some years (1660-66) ; and in 1666 
was invited by Captain John Hodgson, an Independent, 
to occupy a part of Coley Hall, of which he was tenant. 
When the Five Mile Act came in force he left home for 
a season, but did not discontinue preaching. He made 
several excursions into his native county, from one of 
which, in 1667, he brought back his second wife, 
Abigail Crompton, of Breightmet, near Little Lever. His 
meetings, though held with caution, were not unfrequently 
broken up; and if he himself escaped, it was largely due 
to the connivance of some of the magistrates and 
constables who were unwilling to execute the laws. In 
1670 he was called to account at the visitation for preach- 
ing at George Horsman's, Little Woodhouse (O.H. 4.15). 

When preaching near Leeds in 1670 he was arrested 
and carried before the Mayor, who put him into the 
common prison called Capon Hall, from which he was 
released the next day, March 15th. He was also fined 
under the Conventicle Act ; and some of his books, his 
bed, tables and other furniture were seized to pay the 
fine. 

When Charles II. issued his "Declaration of Indul- 
gence "(March 15th, 1672), suspending the penal laws 
against Nonconformists, Heywood obtained a licence for 
his own house as a Presbyterian meeting-place, and for 
that of John Butterworth, at Warley, in another part of 
the parish. Similar licences were also obtained by his 
friends, Joseph Dawson and Eli Bentley, at Halifax, and by 
Squire Horton, at Sowerby. Having purchased (May 8th) 
the house in which he formerly dwelt at Northowram, 
he set apart " the best chamber " therein as a meeting- 
place, where he preached the following Sunday, and 
continued, with some interruptions, to hold religious 
services there for sixteen years. The house still exists in 
the form of two colleges ; and over one of the windows is 
this inscription, " O.A.H. Ebenezer, 1677." A number 



74 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

of " the inhabitants of Coley Chapelry and others " 
solemnly pledged themselves to accept him as their pastor 
"formally chosen by us," and partook of the Lord's 
Supper, June 12th, 1672. Fifteen members of the Congre- 
gational Church at Sowerby (where old Mr. Roote died 
in 1669) united with them on July 14th, their differences 
in matter of church government having been composed, 
chiefly through the influence of Captain Hodgson. " We 
were," he says, " about sixty communicants of our and 
their members and enjoyed sweet harmony." Heywood 
was now in labours more abundant. Besides preaching 
at home on Sundays, he preached at Warley once 
every week, took his turn with Dawson, Bentley, and 
Timothy Root at a lecture on Tuesdays at Sowerby ; and 
often held services for Mr. Bentley, at Halifax, on 
Wednesdays. He spent much time in visiting devout 
families in the district, and travelled on horseback 
considerable distances — into Craven, to Penistone, 
Sheffield, and elsewhere. During the year 1673 he 
preached sixty-nine sermons, held thirty fasts and three 
thanksgivings, and travelled more than a thousand miles. 
In some subsequent years these numbers were greatly 
exceeded. On the recall of the licences in 1675 he 
dismissed his congregation. But " I was troubled at my 
cessation," he says, " and within two days I fell to 
preaching again." Although sometimes in pecuniary 
straits, his needs were always supplied by benevolent 
friends. During his journeys his horse several times 
fell under him, which is not surprising, seeing that he was 
a man of over eighteen stone in weight ; but he met with 
no serious injury, which he gratefully ascribed to the 
watchful care of Divine Providence, and regarded as an 
encouragement to continue his labours. In 1680, he was 
again cited in the Consistory Court at York, together 
with his wife and several of his neighbours, for not going 
to the Sacrament at the Parish Church ; and for contempt 
in not appearing, they were all excommunicated. At the 
close of the year 1684 his meetings were broken in upon 
and scattered, and the following January he was convicted 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 75 

at Wakefield of holding "a riotous assembly" at his 
house and sentenced to pay a fine of £50; for non- 
payment of which, and for not finding sureties that he 
should forbear preaching, he was sent to York Castle, 
where he remained a prisoner for nearly twelve months. 
But he was dealt with very leniently, and spent the last 
day of December, 1685, in thanksgiving and praise in 
his own house. 

Liberty was now close at hand. Soon after James II. 
issued his Declaration for Liberty of Conscience (April 
4th, 1687), he set himself to build a chapel at North- 
owram. On laying the foundation stone, April 23rd, 
1688, he kneeled upon it and spent a whole hour in giving 
thanks to God ; and at the opening of the chapel, July 
8th, he preached to a larger concourse of people than 
could crowd into it. The next year it was registered under 
the Toleration Act. After standing nearly 150 years this 
building was replaced by the present " Hey wood Chapel " 
(1837). Although now sixty years of age he pursued his 
useful labours with undiminished energy. The valuable 
practical treatises he published contributed much to his 
usefulness. The formation of numerous Nonconformist 
churches, and the maintenance of an efficient ministry, 
were largely due to his exertions ; and some thousands 
of souls were indebted to his teaching for deep and 
abiding impressions of divine things. The happy days 
of his early ministry came back to him in his old age, 
and nothing could tempt him to leave the place where 
he had so long laboured. At length his strength began to 
fail. He could not ride as formerly, and was obliged to 
confine his preaching to his own congregation. When 
unable to walk to the chapel he was carried thither in a 
chair on men's shoulders. His last sermon was preached 
on the 26th April, 1702 ; he died on the 4th of May, 
aged 73, and was buried in Holdsworth Chapel, in the 
Parish Church, where his mother and many of his 
friends had been laid before him, and where five years 
later his wife was laid beside him. Both his sons 
became Nonconformist ministers : John at Pontefract 



76 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

(d. 1704), and Eleazer at Dronfield, Derbyshire (d. 

1730). 

["The Whole Works of the Rev. Oliver Heywood, 
B.A., with Memoirs of his Life, by R. Slate," 5 vols., Idle, 
1827 ; " Life," by J. Fawcett, A.M. (no date) ; " The Rise 
of the Old Dissent, exemplified in the Life of Oliver 
Heywood," by Joseph Hunter, F.S.A., 1842; "Oliver 
Heywood's Diaries," edited by J. Horsfall Turner, 
1882-5 J " The Northowram Register " edited by Turner, 
1881 ; "Northowram, its History and Antiquities," by 
Mark Pearson, 1898.] 

60. HIBBERT, Henry, D.D. (1600-1678), was ejected from 

Holy Trinity Church, Hull; and afterwards con- 
formed. 

He was a son of William Hibbert, vicar of Mottram, 
Cheshire; educated at Brazenose College; matriculated 
1620, aged 18 ; B.A. 1622 ; B.D., St. John's College, per 
Lit. Reg. 1664 ; D.D. 1665. He was minister of Settrington, 
"a preaching minister " (Pari. Sur.). On the removal of 
William Styles from Hessle-cum-Hull, for refusing to 
take the Engagement, he was chosen " Pastor " in his 
stead, and continued till the Restoration. 

He subsequently conformed and took orders, became 
rector of Allhallows the Less and vicar of St. Olaves, Old 
Jewry, London (1662-78), and prebendary of St. Paul's 
(1669), and died in 1678. He was the author of 
" Syntagma Theologicum," 1662, and several other works. 

61. HIDE, John, was ejected from the Curacy of the Chapel 

of Slaithwaite, in the parish of Huddersfield ; and 
afterwards conformed. 

There was " no minister " in the time of the Parlia- 
mentary Survey. The first mentioned in Hulbert's 
" History of Slaithwaite " was Mr. Meek, 1687. 

62. HILL, Edward, M.A. (1589-1669), was ejected from the 

Rectory of Crofton, near Wakefield. 

He was brother of Joshua Hill ; who was minister of 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 77 

Walmsley, Lanes., and afterwards of Bramley, near Leeds, 
where he died only a few hours before a summons reached 
his house for him to appear in the Archbishop's Court to 
answer a charge for not wearing the surplice and other 
acts of nonconformity (1632). Edward was educated at 
Christ's College, Cambridge ; instituted vicar of Hudders- 
field, September 2nd, 1619; and on the sequestration of 
Francis Burley presented to the rectory of Crofton. 
[Walker.]" He was the first who signed the West 
Riding Ministers' Attestation in 1648, " a grave, godly 
and painfull divine " (Pari. Sur.) ; in 1654, April 17th, 
under the new Act concerning marriages, &c, he was 
sworn Registrar before Justice Ward, of Pontefract. 

After his ejection by the Act of Uniformity, when 
Edward Browne (formerly vicar of Sheffield) was in- 
ducted, November 6th, 1662, by Dr. Bradley, of Ackworth, 
he still continued to reside at Crofton. But on the 
passing of the Five Mile Act he removed to Shipden, near 
Halifax, being related to the Listers of Shipden Hall. 
" This day being January 29, 1668-9," savs Heywood, 
" we have been interring the corpses of old Mr. Hill and 
his wife. He was aged 80 years within a few weeks ; 
she near as old. They had lived many years together. 
He died on Wednesday, betwixt 11 and 12 o'clock. She 
died at 3 o'clock same day. Seven nonconformist 
ministers laid him in his grave." The following inscrip- 
tion was placed on his tombstone in Halifax Churchyard : 
" In memory of Mr. Edward Hill, late Rector, of Crofton 
aged 79 years, and of Ann his wife, who having been 
married fifty-three years, died both on the same day, 
January 1668." He was uncle to Joseph Hill (son of 
Joshua), of whom hereafter. 

63. HILL, Matthew, M.A., was ejected from the Perpetual 
Curacy of Thirsk. 

He was born at York, and after due preparation 

* Hunter says, " The rectory was then vacant by the non-subs, of 
Francis Burley, an ejected minister who has escaped the notice of Dr. 
Calamy, but perhaps he conformed." There is some mistake here. 



78 YORKSHIRE P URITA NISM A ND EA RLY NONCONFORMITY . 

educated at Magdalen College, Cambridge, where he was 
under the tuition of Samuel Hammond ; further studied 
Hebrew under Daniel Sherard, of Nether Poppleton, " a 
constant preacher, of civil conversation, vicar there" 
(Pari. Sur.) ; and became minister at Healaugh, near 
Tadcaster, of which Lord Wharton was patron. A 
testimonial of his ordination, drawn up by the famous 
Edward Bowles, of York, in his own handwriting, is an 
excellent model of such documents, and was as follows : 

11 Forasmuch as the Lord Jesus Christ, the great Apostle of our 
profession, has judged it meet that there should be a succession of 
pastors and teachers in his Church, even unto the end of the world, 
for the edifying of his body until it come unto a perfect man, unto 
the measure of the stature of his fulness ; and hath deputed the care 
of this ministerial office unto such as have been already called 
thereunto, requiring them to commit the things they have received 
unto faithful men who shall be able to teach others also; We, the 
ministers of Christ who are called to watch over part of His flock 
in the city of York, with the assistance of some others that we 
might not be wanting to the service of the Church in this its 
necessity, having received creditable testimony under the hands of 
divers ministers of the Gospel and others, of the sober, righteous 
and godly conversation of Matthew Hill, M.A., and preacher of the 
Gospel at Healaugh, as also concerning his gifts for the ministry, 
have proceeded to make further tryal of his fitness for so great a 
work ; and being in some good measure satisfied concerning his 
piety and ability have upon the 23rd day of June, A.D. 1654, pro- 
ceeded solemnly to set him the said Matthew Hill apart unto the 
office of a Presbyter and work of the ministry, by laying on our 
hands with fasting and prayer. By the vertue whereof we do 
esteem and declare him a lawful minister of Christ, and more 
especially unto the people of Healaugh aforesaid that they would 
receive him as a minister of the Gospel, loving, knowing and obey- 
ing him in the Lord. In witness whereof we have hereunto set our 
hands this 24th day of June, 1654. 

Nathaniel Jackson [of Barwick-in-Elmet, " a 
godly, learned and powerful preacher." — Pari. 
Sur.] 

Edward Bowles, 

Thomas Calvert." 

He had much opposition from the Quakers, but gained 
upon many of them by degrees. From Healaugh he 
removed to Thirsk. Being ejected he was wholly destitute 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 79 

of a subsistence, and his father, who had not without 
difficulty borne the charge of his education, was not able 
to give him any great assistance. He preached for a 
while privately at York, but in much danger. He had 
several relations who all along pressed him to conformity, 
which would soon have altered his circumstances ; but no 
necessities could tempt him to think of offering violence 
to his conscience. To his other infirmities was added a 
weak and crazy body, which was almost continually out 
of order. Not being willing to be burdensome to his 
relations he cast himself wholly upon Divine Providence, 
went to London in search of some employment, and ob- 
tained a chaplainship at Gatton on Sundays, at a salary of 
£20 per annum. Removing thence he lost all he possessed 
in a fire in London, on which he subscribed a letter to a 
near relation thus : " Your brother sine re, sine spe, non 
sine se, MH" About 1669 he took a voyage to the West 
Indies, embarking with a light cargo, having little else 
besides a few clothes, a Bible, concordance, and a small 
parcel of manuscript ; and fixed at Charles county, in 
Maryland, where after some useful service in the ministry 
and many troubles he finished his course. He was a 
man of quick parts, a good scholar, a serious, warm and 
lively preacher, and of a free and generous temper. His 
life was indeed a comment on Prov. xvi. 9, 33. Not being 
allowed to serve God according to his conscience in his 
native country, he was forced into the remotest parts ; 
where he laid his bones in a strange land, but with the 
same hope of a happy resurrection unto eternal life, as if 
the same spot of land that brought him forth had also 
entombed him. 

64. HILL, Nicholas, was- ejected from the Vicarage of 
BuYstwick-cum-Skecklingy in Holderness, four miles 
from Hedon. 

He often preached at Owthorne, six miles from Burst- 
wick, for Mr. Samuel Picard, who died there in 1659. 
He is mentioned in the Parliamentary Survey as at 
Burstwick, and was a very laborious minister. 



8o YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 



65. HILL, Stephen, of Beverley (?) — (Morrice). 

A Mr. Hill is said to have preached at Beverley 
Minster every Lord's day afternoon, as Mr. Pomroy did 
in the morning. Calamy supposes him to be Stephen 
Hill, who, he says, was ejected from "Serraby"; but 
there is no such place. North Ferriby, seven miles 
W.S.W. of Hull, is probably meant ; James Roberts 
was minister there under the protectorate. Stephen 
Hill was afterwards chaplain to Sir William Strickland, 
of Boynton (as was also Pomroy). He is described as 
a man of considerable abilities and of exemplary 
conversation. 

66. HOBSON, John, M.A. ( -1672), was ejected from 

the Rectory of Sandal Parva, or Kirk Sandall, near 
Doncaster. 

This was the ancestral home of the Rokebys, the 
most distinguished of whom were Dr. William Rokeby 
(sometime vicar of Halifax, and afterwards Bishop of 
Meath, and Archbishop of Dublin, who died in 1521), 
and Judge Rokeby, a nonconformist, who died in 1699. 
The minister at the time of the Parliamentary Survey 
was " Mr. Barnard, a constant preaching minister ; 
patron, the late King." After him Mr. Hobson appears 
to have been appointed to the living. 

He was a native of Burton Agnes, and educated at 
Wadham College, Oxford, where he was admitted B.A. 
and M.A., July 14th, 1649, and was chaplain of the 
college. 

When silenced by the Act of Uniformity he lived 
about three miles east of York. Under the Declaration 
of Indulgence he had licence for a room or rooms at 
Kirk Sandall Hall, along with Mark Triggate, "to reach 
nonconformists of the Congregational persuasion " (May 
2nd, 1672) ; and died soon afterwards. He was a sober, 
serious, pious man and a faithful minister ; of a sweet 
winning deportment and unblamable conversation, yet 
met with many discouragements. He had little employ- 
ment, but was comfortably provided for. 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 81 

67. HOLDSWORTH, Josiah, B.A. (1602-1677), was ejected 
from the Perpetual Curacy of Nether Poppleton, near 
York. 

He was a native of Ripponden, in the parish of Halifax, 
educated at Magdalen College, Cambridge ; B.A., 1629. 
For some years he was minister in Essex, where he was 
successful to the good of many ; and whence he came 
to Poppleton. " Daniel Sherard, a constant preacher, 
of civil conversation, is vicar there " (Pari. Sur.). John 
Kershaw, of Poppleton, signed certificates in 1658, but 
was presented to St. Martin's, Micklegate, York, by 
Stephen Watson, September 8th, 1658 ; certif. John 
Geldart, Edward Bowles, Thomas Calvert and John 
Howe. 

Holdsworth was probably appointed to Poppleton 
soon afterwards. 

After his ejection in 1662 he removed to Wakefield ; 
preached for a year at Idle Chapel, in the parish of 
Calverley ; had licence for his own house at Wakefield, 
as a Presbyterian (July 23rd, 1672) ; frequently preached 
in the neighbourhood, and died at Wakefield, October 
18th, 1677, aged 75. He was an intelligent and pious 
man, of a very venerable aspect, and had great skill in 
the healing art, which, like many other ejected ministers, 
he practised privately. 

68. HOLDSWORTH, Josiah (1638-1685), was ejected from 
the Perpetual Curacy of Sutton, in Holderness ; about 
« four miles N.E. of Hull. 

He was the son of John Holdsworth, clothier; bred 
at Wakefield under Mr. Doughty ; admitted to St. 
John's College, Cambridge, as sizar, tutor and surety 
Mr. Stillingfleet, April gth, 1655, aet. 17. His father 
was, in all probability, an elder of the Congregational 
Church at Woodchurch (West Ardsley), under 
Christopher Marshall. After his ejection at the Restora- 
tion he joined the fellowship of that church, December 
22nd, 1661, and preached occasionally in the neighbour- 
hood. He then became for awhile chaplain to Sir Richard 

G 



82 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

Hoghton, of Hoghton Tower, Lancashire. Under the 
Declaration of Indulgence he applied for a licence as a 
Congregationalist to preach in Heaton (Cleckheaton ?) 
Chapel. It is doubtful whether his application was 
granted, on account of its having been deemed a conse- 
crated place; but he had licence for the house of 
Elizabeth Rayner, widow, Heckmondwike (May 2nd, 
1672). He gathered a congregation at the house of 
Abraham Taylor, at the Swash, Heckmondwike, where 
a Congregational church of thirteen members was 
formally constituted, July 29th, 1674, of which he was 
admitted member by dismission from Woodchurch 
(Topcliffe), and chosen pastor August 24th, and 
ordained on the 5th of November following. Ruling 
elders and deacons were also appointed. Severe 
persecution followed. It is recorded in the Church 
Book : " September, 1676, laid down for releasing the 
pastor from the hands of Mr. Ashburne (Joseph 
Ashburnell, vicar of Birstall, at whose instigation he 
had been arrested) over and besides what was given by 
the brethren £ 1 6s. 8d." It was reported at the Quarter 
Sessions in 1681 that " a conventicle was held at Heck- 
mondwike, when Josiah Holdsworth was preaching at 
the house of Isabella Rayner, and persons were there 
from Gomersale, Batley, Heckmondwike and other 
places." " All the societies round about us," wrote Hey- 
wood, August 30th, 1682, " have been sadly broken and 
scattered. Mr. Josiah Holdsworth's at Heckmondwike 
meet not in the day but in the night for these several 
months." No members were received into the Church 
for several years. But Mr. Holdsworth held on his 
course without flinching. When the church at Topcliffe 
was vacant, owing to the decease of the pastor, he 
frequently preached there ; and it was recorded in the 
Leeds Sessions Call Book (1682) that "for six or seven 
years great numbers of people have gone to Topcliffe 
Hall, to an Independent conventicle, and Josiah Holds- 
worth, of Heckmondwike, preached there in May last, 
when sixty persons were present." When persecution 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 83 

was at its height he was called to his Heavenly rest 
at the age of 46, and his remains were interred in 
the burial ground at Tingley, near Topcliffe, July 29th, 
1685. He was a man of great piety, sincerity, strictness 
and industry for the good of souls ; much beloved and 
blessed with abundance of success. 

His successor at Heckmondwike was David Noble 
(1686-1709), in whose time a chapel was built (1701). 
In 1715 the congregation numbered 350, including seven 
voters for the county. 

69. HOLMES, Barham, M.A., was ejected from the Rectory 

of Armthorpe, six miles from Doncaster. 

He was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, created 
M.A. April 14th, 1648; and appointed to the rectory 
September 23rd, 1648 (Lords' Jour., X. 508), which he 
held till the passing of the Act of Uniformity, by which 
he was ejected. "A constant preaching minister" 
(Pari. Sur.). 

70. HOOLE, John, was ejected from the Curacy of the 

Chapel at Bvadfield, in the parish of Ecclesfield, near 
Sheffield. 

Robert Chadwick, " a painfull minister " (Pari. Sur.), 
was minister here from 1649 until his death, April 5th, 
1659 ; when he was succeeded by John Hoole, who was 
displaced for nonconformity in 1662. 

He ultimately conformed, and two years later was 
appointed to minister at Coley Chapel, from which 
Oliver Heywood had been excluded. " Now at last," 
he wrote October 23rd, 1664, " there is an honest 
minister come to Coley; a very late conformist, who 
preached well and is a pious man, and therefore I am 
resolved not to draw any from the public ordinances." 
Mr. Hoole's conformity was not apparently very hearty 
or complete, for at the visitation in 1667 he was presented 
for not catechising the youths on Sundays, and not 
exhibiting his orders (Heywood : Diar. IX. 15). In 



84 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

the absence of Mr. Hoole, and at the request of many 
of the people, Heywood preached in the chapel, January 
5th, 1668, and again on September 19th, 1669, and May 
22nd, 1670, for which he had to suffer the spoiling of 
his goods. Having been absent about five years, Mr. 
Hoole returned to his old place at Bradfield. Many 
years later, viz. on Saturday, May 13th, 1682, " Mr. 
Hoole being come over to preach at Coley, some persons 
went with him to Dr. Hook (the vicar), to desire him to 
give his consent that Mr. Hoole might be the preacher 
at Coley, but the Dr. utterly refused to suffer him to 
come, saying, I would rather that Mr. Heywood preacht 
than Mr. Hoole if he would conform. One of them 
answered, ' So would we'" (Diar. II. 288). Mr. Hoole 
continued at Bradfield till his death in 1701. 

71. HULSTON (?). 

A Mr. Hulston is said by Calamy (1st edn.) to have 
been ejected from Edlington ; this is two miles from 
Conisbrough, W.R. Palmer says Ellington, but there 
is no such parish in Yorkshire ; Ellingtons is a township 
in the parish of Masham, N.R. Morrice mentions a 
" Hinston of Allerton " ; there are five or six places so 
called in Yorkshire, but we can find no trace of any 
Hinston or Hulston. 

In 1650 the Parliamentary Survey names Samuel 
Kendall, "a faithful godly minister," as rector of Edling- 
ton. Hulston may possibly have been his successor. 

72. INGHAM. One of this name is said to have been 

ejected some where in the West Riding. 

Wm. Ingham, of Goosenarghe, Lancashire, signed the 
Lancashire Ministers' Testimony in 1648, and was there 
in 1654. 

Wm. Ingham, Jun., was minister of Shirehead Chapel, 
in the parish of Cockerham, Lancashire, in 1652. 

One of these was minister at Ribchester, and con- 
formed at the Restoration; buried 1681. 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 85 

73. INMAN. A Mr. Inman was ejected from the Rectory 

of High Hoyland. We have not been able to identify 
him. 

There were two parsonages. Inman was here in 1650, 
"an able and painfull preacher" (Pari. Sur.) ; "Mr. 
Wm. Sarvyle (Carvill) is not well affected to the Parlia- 
ment, and hath been punished for reading the Book of 
Common Prayer, and notwithstanding will sometimes 
make use of the same." The latter was probably dis- 
placed and succeded by Thomas Herring, who " kept 
in," while the former became a nonconformist in 1662. 
Inman afterwards kept a school at Clayton West, a 
township of High Hoyland. He was a good scholar, 
lived obscurely, and died in March, 1689, aged 66. 

74. ISSOTT, John (1636- 1688), was ejected from the Per- 

petual Curacy of Nun-Monkton, near York. 

He was son of John Issott, of Horbury (an elder of the 
Congregational Church at Woodchurch, West Ardsley, 
afterwards meeting at Topcliffe Hall) ; and at an early age 
was preacher at Nun-Monkton, where the Parliamentary 
Survey had reported Thomas Carr as a preaching minister. 
On his ejection he returned to his father's house, and in 
1669 was indicted at the York Assizes, along with his 
father, his brother Jephtha, his sister Sarah, and Margaret 
Heald for not coming to the Parish Church. Under the 
Declaration of Indulgence he had licence to teach at the 
house of John Issott, Sen., at Horbury (May 16th, 1672) 
as a Congregationalist. Shortly afterwards he entered 
the Academy of Richard Frankland, at Rathmell (Feb- 
ruary 20th, 1674), and accompanied him to Natland, 
near Kendal, as " his assistant in preaching and teaching, 
living in the family, one of his scholars, an able, serious 
young man " (Heywood). He was ordained by Frank- 
land and Heywood at the house of Richard Mitchell, of 
Marton Scar, near Skipton, at the first services of the 
kind held in Yorkshire (July 8th, 1678), with a view to 
his taking the charge of a congregation which had been 
gathered two or three years before and usually met at 



86 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

the house of John Hey (Pasture House), near Horton-in- 
Craven. Here he continued diligently labouring for about 
ten years. A new built meeting-house was opened at 
John Hey's with a sermon by Heywood, May 24th, 1682. 
It was a time of bitter persecution, and the congregation 
holding their meetings there were informed against, 
brought before the Justices, and " through the violence 
of one of the Sessions " mulcted in fines and other 
charges of £100 (Jolly's Note Book, p. 51). Issott died 
January 12th, 1688, aged 52. " He was," says Calamy, 
" an Israelite indeed, but very sparing of his words ; one 
of a weak constitution, but reckoned a great scholar and 
an excellent preacher. He was a stranger upon earth all 
his days and lived as if he was in Heaven." He was 
succeeded at Horton by a student of Frankland, who 
died in 1707. 

75. JACKSON, Christopher, was ejected somewhere in 
Yorkshire, and afterwards at Crosby Garrett, in 
Westmoreland. 

He was son of Thomas Jackson, of Leeds, and was at 
first designed for trade and put out as an apprentice; 
but his friends observing his bookishness, took him from 
his business and sent him to Cambridge ; where he studied 
under Mr. Joseph Hill, a native of Leeds. He was 
admitted to Magdalen Hall in June, 1652, aged 21, and 
graduated B.A. in 1655. Calamy says, " He was a very 
pious man, of a holy life and competent learning." After 
his ejection he lived meanly upon a little estate in the 
parish of Ravenstonedale (most of the inhabitants being 
tenants of Lord Wharton), and preached occasionally. 
On some conforming ministers, of whom there were 
several in the neighbourhood, telling him that his coat 
was very bare, he made the apt reply, " If it is bare it is 
not turned." He married Anne Taylor at Ravenstonedale, 
April 7th, 1664, and some persons of his name afterwards 
resided in the parish ; but what became of him is 
unknown. 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 87 

76. JACKSON, Nathaniel ( -1662), was ejected from the 

Vicarage of Barwick-in-Elmet , eight miles from Leeds. 

He is not mentioned by Calamy, but has a rightful 
place among the ejected nonconformists. He belonged 
to a Puritan family, being son of John Jackson, rector 
of Meltonby, near Pocklington, who had three sons. 
His elder brother, John Jackson, was rector of Marske, 
near Richmond; presented in 1634 at Archbishop Neile's 
Diocesan Visitation for not reading prayers upon the 
eves of Sundays and Holy days, and sometimes omitting 
to wear the surplice; a member of the Assembly of 
Divines at Westminster, and preacher at Gray's Inn, but 
nevertheless a royalist ; and died at Barwick in 1648. 
Another brother, Timothy, was curate of Hackness and 
preacher at Wragby (1630-1647) ; his son John was vicar 
of Doncaster ; " He deserted the politics of his family and 
bowed to the storm" (Raine). Nathaniel was rector of 
Stonegrave (1629-1648), and soon afterwards of Barwick; 
" a godly, learned and painful preacher" (Pari. Sur.) ; 
signed the certificate of the ordination of Matthew Hill 
at Thirsk, June 14th, 1654 ; gave instruction to Thomas 
Hardcastle (vide) ; and continued until the Restoration, 
when Dr. Dalton was brought back, and he took up his 
residence in York (see Arlush), where he died soon after 
the Act of Uniformity came into operation. " He was 
interred in that great rendezvous of the Puritan party, 
the Church of All Saints, in the Pavement, November 1st, 
1662, with the famous Edward Bowles and many others 
of his friends " (" Marske in Swaledale," by Canon Raine). 

77. JENNISON. One of this name is said by Morrice and 

Calamy to have been ejected at Osgarly, but there is 
no such place to be found. There are, however, 
Osgoodby, a private estate in Thirkleby, near Thirsk, 
which was licensed in 1672, also Osgodby, near Selby, 
and Osgodby, near Scarboro ; but neither of these is an 
ecclesiastical benefice. 

Palmer (III. 474) says Mr. Jennison was "not fixed 
when the Act of Uniformity took place." 



88 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

He was son of Dr. P. J. Jennison, lecturer at New- 
castle-on-Tyne, who was, at the instigation of Archbishop 
Laud, brought before the Court of High Commission at 
York in 1639, and so harassed by the ecclesiastical courts 
for his nonconformity that he was driven to leave the 
kingdom and emigrated to New England (Brook's 
" Lives of the Puritans," III. 527). 

Note by Palmer, III. 76: Randal says, " Dr. Robert 
Jennison, an intruder, 1645 — Samuel Hammond, another 
intruder, 1652 ; he ran away upon the Restoration — John 
Knightsbridge, a third intruder or interloper, 1660, 
afterwards a Conformer." Dr. Jennison is mentioned 
among the conformists in Yorkshire. [His son, Thomas 
Jennison, of Newcastle, was admitted to St. John's 
College, Cambridge, 5th April, 1658, aged 18.] 

78. JOHNSON, Thomas, M.A. (1629-1707), was ejected 
from the Vicarage of Sherbum-in-Elmet. 

He was son of Edward Johnson, yeoman, of Pain- 
thorpe, in the parish of Sandal Magna, near Wakefield ; 
bred at Crigglestone, under Daniel Birt, master ; admitted 
to St. John's College, Cambridge ; pensioner, under Mr. 
Creswick, June 8th, 1649, aet. 19 ; and graduated M.A. 
About 1655 he became minister at the chapel of Great 
Houghton, in the parish of Darfield, which had been built 
by Sir Edward Rodes in 1650, and was ordained at Adel, 
near Leeds, October 31st, 1655, according to the follow- 
ing Testimonial : 

11 Forasmuch as Thomas Johnson, Bachelor of Arts, hath 
addressed himself to the Classical Presbytery at Adle, in the county 
of York, desiring to be ordained for that he is called to the work of 
the ministry within the parish of Darfield, to the Chappel at 
Houghton, in the county of York ; and hath exhibited to the 
Presbytery sufficient testimonial of his competent age, unblameable 
life and conversation, diligence and proficiency in his study s, and 
of his fair and direct calling unto the aforementioned congregation 
of Houghton. We, the Presbytery, having first examined him and 
finding that he is duly qualified and gifted for that holy office and 
employment (no just exception being made against his ordination) 
we have approved him, and in the Church of Adle aforesaid upon 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 89 

the day and year hereafter expressed. We have proceeded solemnly 
to set him apart to the office of a preaching Presbyter and work of 
the ministry, with fasting prayer and imposition of hands ; and in 
witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names this 31st 
of October in the year of the Lord God 1655. 

Thomas Hawkesworth, Moderator. 

Elk. Wales. 

Rob. Todd. 

Geo. Crosley. 

Ja. Dale, Scriba." 

N.B. — Mr. Cornelius Todd, son of Robert Todd, was 
ordained at Adle the same day. 

After continuing at Great Houghton for some years 
he became minister at Sherburne in Elmet (where 
Alexander Robertson was in 1648 and 1650), from the 
vicarage of which he was ejected. 

After his ejection from Sherburn (where John Baynes 
was instituted September nth, 1662), he remained there 
until driven away by the Five Mile Act to his native 
place ; where he had a small property, and continued to 
reside, preaching at various other places so far as the 
severity of the times permitted. Under the Declaration 
of Indulgence he had licence as a Presbyterian teacher 
at his own house or elsewhere (September 30th, 1672), 
according to the following form : 

" CHARLES R. 

Charles, by the grace of God King of England, Scotland, 
France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c. 

To all Mayors, Bayliffs, Constables and other our Officers and 
Ministers Civil and Military whom it may concern Greeting. 

In pursuance of our Declaration of the 15th March, 1671-2, 
we do hereby permit and license 

Thomas Johnson of Sandal Magna in Yorkshire 
of the Persuasion commonly -called Presbyterian to be a Preacher 
and to teach in any place licensed and allowed by us according to 
the said Declaration. 

Given at our Court at Whitehall the 30th day of September in the 
24th year of our reign 1672. By his Majesty's Command. 

Arlington." 

Johnson a general Teacher. 

[N.B. — All except the words in italics are printed.] 
This and the former document in the possession of Thos. 



9 o YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

Johnson, Esq., of Holbeck, near Leeds. Taken from copies made 
by Rev. Wm. Turner, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, May 8th, 1821. 

J. W. 

(Joshua Wilson.) 

Johnson was on intimate terms with Oliver Heywood 
(whom he met at Jonas Waterhouse's, at Bradford, in 
1666), and is frequently referred to by him as taking 
part in religious services. He preached every Lord's 
day for some time in the chapel at Idle, near Bradford 
(1673) ; also occasionally at Bramhope, near Otley, 
Shadwell, near Leeds, Great Houghton, and elsewhere. 

Under the Toleration Act his own house at Painthorp 
was registered in 1689. About this time he regularly 
preached at Flockton — at a place called Rawroyd — and 
at Crigglestone ; in consideration of which he received 
a small allowance from a fund formed in London for 
assisting poor nonconformist ministers (Heywood : 
Diar. III. 275). He also received a small annual grant 
from a legacy left by Lady Mary Armine, of Monk 
Bretton, in the parish of Royston, for the same purpose ; 
and grants of money and Bibles from the trustees of 
Philip, Lord Wharton. He visited Heywood not long 
before the death of the latter (Diar. IV. 176, 272). In 
his later years he was in great pecuniary straits, but he 
held on his course faithfully to the end. On his tomb 
in the churchyard at Sandal is the following inscription 
(in Latin) : " Here rests the body of Thomas Johnson 
of Painthorp, formerly of St. John's College in the 
University of Cambridge, Master of Arts, who paid the 
debt of nature on the 14th day of July, A.D., 1707, in 
the 78th year of his age." He had two sons, Thomas 
and Nathaniel, of whom the first, and perhaps the last, 
settled in business in Leeds. 

79. KAYE, William, was ejected from the Rectory of 
Stokesley, in the North Riding, in 1660. 

He is not mentioned by Calamy. He probably had 
relatives in Stokesley, as we find the name in the Parish 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 91 



Register in 1604.* Thomas Pennyman was sequestered 
during the civil war, and according to Walker his place 
was " usurped by Mr. Kay, a rebellious son of a very 
loyal father, Mr. Kay, of Topcliffe." The Register has 
the following entries : 

1639. F eD « 20, Horatio, son of Mr. Wm. Kaye (and 
added by a later hand), once curat, after 
a rebellious usurper, bapt. 

1641. June 29, son of Wm. Kaye, bapt. 

1645-6. Jan. 26, Sarah, daughter of Mr. W. Kaye — 
once curate, after a rebellious usurper, parson, 
of Stokesley, bapt. 

1653. July 21, Dorothy, the daughter of Wm. Kaye 
(the word parson obliterated), borne. 

In this year he became a Baptist. Crosby, in his 
" History of the Baptists " (IV. 251), speaks of Mr. Kaye 
as " a gentleman of learning who left the Establishment 
and joined the Baptists." But it seems probable that 
although a convinced Baptist he continued as " Public 
Preacher " at Stokesley up to the time of the Restoration. 
In the Fenstanton Records (Hexham), we find it 
stated by Thomas Tillam, then of Hexham, 1653, July 
3rd : " We prepared for the great work at Stokesley, 
seven ministers engaging in the journey; where Mr. 
Kaye, the minister, and 29 with him were baptised 
by Thomas Tillam ; a work of wonder, and calling 
for our high praise." In 1654 Kaye says "the 
dawning of the day of the saints is already begun." 
He was one of the visitors to the proposed University 
of Durham, May 15th, 1657. The entries of the births 
and burials of several of his children are found in the 
Register up to 1660; and then we read in the same 
Register, M Charles II. was restored to the kingdom and 
in the same year Thomas Pennyman was restored to 
the rectory of Stokesley." What became of Kaye is 
unknown, unless the following entry refers to him : 
" 1690, July 4, William Kaye of Stokesley buried." 

*" 1604, Aug. 14. Wm. Kaye and Margaret Stockton married." 
Perhaps his father. 



92 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

80. KENNION, Roger (1618-1703), was ejected from the 
Curacy of Ripponden, in the parish of Halifax, and 
afterwards conformed. 

He succeeded Isaac Allen, " a painfull preacher " 
(Pari. Sur.). " Old Mr. Allen, who had been parson of 
Prestwich, a solid substantial preacher, turned out in 
the war-time for not taking the Covenant,* had found 
shelter there; they loved him well, allowed him a 
competent maintenance; he frequently preached to 
them at Halifax Exercise ; when the King came in, in 
1660, he was restored to Prestwich, lived and died 
there" (O. Heywood). He is also mentioned by 
Walker as "a very great sufferer, and among other ill- 
usages was imprisoned at Manchester." Kennion 
preached at Bingley in 1659 ; and left Ripponden on 
or soon after the passing of the Act of Uniformity. 
Jacobs (" History of Halifax ") had copies of his two last 
sermons preached at Ripponden, August 17th, 1663 (? 2), 
wherein he advises his hearers " not to neglect the first 
opportunity of closing with another (minister), for he 
was persuaded that true spiritual bread would be more 
scarce and precious than it had been " ; and uses the 
following curious simile : " We are like unto a man that 
is in a pinnacle of a church, and seeth out of a hole, 
where he can see nothing but what is before the hole, 
but God is like unto a man on the top of the pinnacle 
that seeth round about." 

On the ejection of George Fothergill from Orton, 
Westmoreland, for not complying with the Act of 
Uniformity (who afterwards conformed and was pre- 
sented to the living of Worsop, Notts.), Roger Kennion 
was presented by the Feoffees to that living, and died in 
I 7°3> a g e d 85, having been married to his wife, who 
survived him, sixty-five years. 

He was replaced at Ripponden by Ralph Wood, 
from Saddleworth, " who, for a while was wonderfully 
peremptory against conformity and seemed to be 

* " A thorn in the side of the Presbytery-" (H alley.) 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 93 

somewhat but is fallen off fearfully into vain 

courses and debauchery; there he is " ; buried February 
16th, 1696-7. 

81. KIRBY, Joshua, M.A. (1617-1676), was ejected from the 
Camden Lectureship at Wakefield. 

He was son of Francis Kirby, gentleman, of London, 
where he was born 1617 ; admitted to Merchant 
Taylors' school, 1628; and to New Hall, Oxford, 
matriculated June 20th, 1634, aet. 17; B.A. October 
19th, 1637; M.A. June nth, 1640. He was a Presby- 
terian and strong Royalist. He was put into the rectory 
of Eastwicke, Herts., October, 1645, but resigned before 
May, 1646 ; became curate of Putney in 1648, when he 
signed the declaration against bringing the King to 
trial, and lost a good living for refusing to take the 
Engagement (1649).* 

About this time (1650) Lady Camden gave £100 per 
annum to maintain a lecture at Wakefield, and appointed 
the Company of Mercers in London trustees for settling 
and managing it f ; who made him the first lecturer, 
and he called his next child Camdena, in grateful 
acknowledgment of his benefactors. He was accus- 
tomed to preach on Lord's day afternoons. On one 
occasion he was brought up to London and imprisoned 
for publicly praying for Charles II. He was also 
arrested and confined at Lambeth on the charge of 
taking part in the Presbyterian rising in Lancashire, 
under Sir George Booth, with a view to the restoration 
of Charles II. (1659). 

When he was silenced by the Act of Uniformity, and 
another lecturer provided for his place, he continued to 
attend the parish church in the afternoon, but preached 
in the evening at his own house at Flanshaw Hall,| near 

* See Brit. Mus. Additional MSS., 15,669-70. 

f Mag. Brit. vi. 359. 

I An old family hall of the Watkinsons, Mr- Watkinson being a dis- 
senter. It is still standing. Thos. Hawksworth, ejected, Hunslet, died 
at Flanshaw Hall in 1666. Thos. Smallwood, an ejected minister, died 
at Flanshaw Hall in 1667. 



94 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

Alverthorpe, two miles from Wakefield ; for which he 
was sent to York Castle, November 21st, 1662. On the 
same account he was committed in March, 1663, by Sir 
John Armitage, Sir Richard Tankard, Thomas Stringer 
and Francis White (York Depositions). Under the Con- 
venticle Act (1664) he was again sent to prison, where 
he was not idle, but improved his solitude by medi- 
tation and prayer, and, when permitted, by preaching. 
On being released he still persisted therein. O. Heywood 
often visited him and joined him in holding religious 
services. 

Under the Declaration of Indulgence he had licence 
as a Presbyterian teacher in his own house (Flanshaw 
Hall) or any other allowed place (May 8th, 1672). At 
the same time The Kiln House in Flanshaw Lane 
(leading from Flanshaw Hall to Alverthorpe), Wakefield, 
was licensed for Presbyterians. 

At both these meeting-places he continued his labours, 
often also preaching in the neighbourhood as he had 
opportunity, until his death, June 12th, 1676, aged 59. 
Being under sentence of excommunication, his remains 
were not permitted to be interred in the Parish church- 
yard, and were buried in his own garden, where also his 
widow, Mary Kirkby, was laid beside him, May nth, 
1688. He was a man of extraordinary sanctity and 
exactness, a right Jacob in his ordinary garb (a plain 
man) and inward plainness and prevalence with God ; 
another Elijah and champion for truth against opposers ; 
a solid, substantial preacher and a great scripturist. 
Some persons complaining of his citing too many 
scriptures in his sermons, he answered that it was like 
complaining of flour being too fine to make bread of; 
"could we," he asked, "speak more properly than in 
God's language ? " He had a notable faculty of expound- 
ing scripture, on which he had many pretty and unusual 
glosses. But his chief excellence lay in prayer, wherein 
he had a peculiar gift. A conformist minister once 
hearing him pray, said, " He prays apostolically." His 
voice was low, and he was rather reserved in his 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 95 



discourse ; but if engaged by questions there was much 
depth and significance in his short answers. He had 
something singular in his sentiments and common 
behaviour, but there was no danger in it. His garb was 
wonderfully plain, and he required the same in all who 
dwelt under his roof. He was a man of extraordinary 
sanctity, very strict in family discipline, and faithful in 
instruction and admonition, of great courage, and 
inflexible when his purpose was once fixed. He would 
sometimes divert himself in making verses, some of 
which are printed in Heywood's Diaries, as to which it 
must be owned the sense is far beyond the poetry. He 
printed only a little Protestant Catechism in Scriptural 
phrase. 

He had two sons and six daughters. One of his sons, 
Joshua, died in infancy ; the other, named Godsgift 
(baptized at Wakefield, January ioth, 1657-8), was a 
student at Frankland's Academy, admitted June 3rd, 
1674; "a scholar, a young preacher, hopeful, but he 
died of a fever, November 22, 1686, at Cold Hindley, 
and was buried at Wakefield, November 24, aged 28." 
His daughters were (1) Susannah, who married Mr. 
Wilson, of Wakefield ; (2) Elizabeth ; (3) Phoebe, 
married John Wadsworth (died 1708), of Horbury; 
(4) Camdena, who married John Wadsworth (died 
1690) of Horbury or Wakefield, 1682 ; (5) Welcome, who 
married Samuel Wadsworth, eldest brother of the 
former, 1697 ; and (6) Twin, married John Reyner, 1687. 
Several of his children were buried with their parents 
in the garden of Flanshaw Hall. He had a grandson, 
who died in 1744, pastor of a congregation in Tucker 
Street, Bristol ; a volume of whose sermons was 
published after his death by Dr. Lardner. His grand- 
daughter on her mother's side was wife of Jacob Hans 
Busk, one of whose descendants is the Earl of Crewe. 

82. LAMBE, Nathaniel, was ejected from the Vicarage of 
Alne (Morrice) ; and afterwards conformed. 

He had licence, as a general teacher, Presbyterian, in 



96 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

all allowed places (July 25th, 1672), and at that time 
resided at York. 

83. LAUGHTHORNE (or Langthorne), Simeon, was 

ejected from the Perpetual Curacy of Boynton. 

He was presented by William Lord Strickland, April 
30th, 1658, his certificate being signed by John Cooper, 
of Elton, Richard Rosbury, of Oundle, and others. 
Nothing more is known of him. 

84. LAW, Thomas, was ejected from the Rectory of 

Sigglesthome, in Holderness. 

Henry Hoyle, A.M., was presented here in 1624, an ^ 
died October 18th, 1657. Law must have succeeded 
him and was ejected in the beginning of 1661, in which 
year Christopher Fulthorp was presented. 

85. LECKE, Thomas, was ejected from the Perpetual 

Curacy of the Chapel of Barlby, in the parish of 
Hemingbrough, about two miles from Selby. 

He is mentioned as marrying a couple at Barlby, 
September 3rd, 1647. 

He was a preaching minister at Barmby-in-the-Marsh 
(Pari. Sur.), which is three and a-half miles from 
Howden. Barlby and Barmby are about five miles 
apart. 

86. LEE, Obadiah (1626-1700), is said by Calamy (1st 

Edn.) and Morrice to have been ejected from 
" Heaton" ; but whether Cleckheaton, Kirkheaton, or 
some other Heaton, or Hayton, E.R., is not evident. 

There was an Obadiah Lee vicar of Warmfield in 
1658, presented September 15th by the Master of Clare 
Hall, Cambridge; certified by Edm. Calamy, Wm. 
Whittaker, Thos. Pawson, Samuel Smith. His father 
had been a scribe to the Assembly of Divines. He 
married Mrs. Sandford, of Bolsover, Derbyshire (May 
17th, 1659), who died the following April; and about a 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 97 

year afterwards he married Mrs. Alice Denison, of 
London. 

He conformed, and was curate at Wakefield in 1671 ; 
afterwards he became vicar there (See Oliver Heywood, 
II. 291), and died in September, 1700, aged 74. 

(?) LISTER, ejected from Giggleswick. 

Palmer mentions a person of this name who " after- 
wards conformed " ; but has no information about him. 

87. LLOYD. A Mr. Lloyd, not identified, was ejected from 

the Chapelry of Farnley, in the parish of Leeds. 

The chapelry was vacant in 1650 (Pari. Sur.). 

88. LUCKE, William ( -1690), was ejected from the 

Perpetual Curacy of the Priory Church, Bridlington. 

A Mr. Crozer or Crosyer was here in 1654, when he 
was appointed assistant commissioner for ejecting 
ignorant and scandalous ministers. 

Lucke was at Hull in 1644 when (July 20th) his 
daughter Jane was buried at Trinity Church. He was 
instituted at Kirby Moorside in 1647 (Lords' Jour. IX. 
99, 103), and signed certificate to Matthew Boyse, of 
Barton-in-the-Street (N. Riding), with Thos. Strange- 
ways, Chr. Bradley of Thornton, and Wm. Dove, April 
13th, 1659. Soon after this he came to Bridlington. 

On his ejection he continued to reside at Bridlington. 
In 1663 he was presented at the Archbishop's Court for 
not attending divine service at the Parish Church. 
About the same time also Thomas Dale and Elizabeth 
his wife were presented for having their child baptized by 
him ; Alice Hardy, the midwife, for carrying the child 
and being present ; and Mr. Lucke, for performing the 
ceremony. In 1672 he was licensed as a general teacher 
to preach in the Town house, called the Court House, or 
elsewhere in any licensed place in England (June 15th), 
as a Presbyterian; also for his own house (November 
18th). 



98 YORKSHIRE PURITA NISM A ND EA RL Y NONCONFORMITY. 

A memorial was sent to Lord Arlington (June 3rd), 
signed by T. Aslaby, Ellis Weycoe, minister, and 
Francis Holdsworth, Free School master, stating that : 

" William Luck, a nonconformist minister, had obtained a licence 
to preach in any lawful place at Birlington, but not Satisfied there- 
with he is procuring a petition from the town for him to preach in 
the Manor House at Bridlington which is the Gatehouse to the 
Church as it was to the Church and Abbey. We humbly conceive 
it an unfit place, though it be the town house where they meet and 
keep their courts, and where the Free School is kept. The said 
William Luck is constantly preaching at the house where he now 
lives and has continued his conventicles under the late Declaration 
until the receipt of the licence. We therefore crave that the 
licensed place may be further from the Church and better if not 
near the town." 

It is doubtful whether his obtained licence for the 
Court House was continued. And after the licences 
were withdrawn he was again present at the Archdeacons' 
Court (1676) for keeping a meeting-house and not 
attending church and receiving sacrament. His meeting 
was in Applegarth Lane. Robert Prudom (the first 
Baptist in Bridlington) and his mother constantly 
attended Mr. Lucke's meeting in a private house after 
his ejection. Lucke died probably about 1690, and in 
1692 RichardWhitehurst came from Lidget,near Bradford, 
to succeed him, preached in a brewery, and died in 1697. 
A new meeting-house |was built in St, John Street, 1702. 

89. MARSDEN, Gamaliel, B.A. (1634-1681), was ejected 
from the Chapelry of Chapel-le-Brears (St. Anne's, 
Southowram), in the parish of Halifax, in 1662. 

He was the third son of Ralph Marsden, curate of 
Coley, in the parish of Halifax, from 16 17 to 1629 (after- 
wards of Ashton-under-Lyne, Middleton, Neston and 
West Kirby, Cheshire, died June 30th, 1648), who had 
four sons, Samuel, Jeremiah, Gamaliel and Josiah, and 
one daughter, Esther, who married John Murcot, an 
eminent divine and successor of his father-in-law at West 
Kirby ; all his several children were born at Coley. 

Gamaliel was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 99 

where he continued ten years (1650-1660), a part of 
which time he was a Fellow. Oliver Heywood says 
of him : 

" Gamaliel Marsden, a pious young scholar, graduated B.A. in 
Trinity College, Dublin, and was elected Fellow ; but was turned 
out in 1660, on the King's return. He had no parents or relatives 
that he could betake himself to ; little left, for when he was landed 
at Liverpool and had paid his freight and bought a horse, he had but 
£5 in his pocket. He rode into Yorkshire and lighted at first at my 
house in Northowram, stayed under my window when we were at 
family prayer ; we entertained him some nights; he then went to 
Joshua Bailey's, of Allerton, where his brother Jeremiah had been 
lately minister. He made him welcome, and he married a young 
woman in the family with £40 a year. He became minister at 
Chappel-le-Breare, but was ejected at Bartholomew's Day, 1662. 
His wife having died he went to Holland, returned, was teacher at 
the church at Topcliff, and married Mr. (Christopher) Marshall's 
widow (1674). He lived plentifully, comfortably, and died with 
honour; was buried May 27, 1681. He left a competent estate to 
friends, and having no child, he bequeathed £20 to poor ministers' 
widows, scholars, godly poor. He ordered by his last will Mr. John 
Pickering, of Tingley, and myself to assist his wife in the distribution 
of it, for which we met at Mrs. Marsden's Feb. 14, 1681-2, and 
ordered it as wisely and equally as we could for doing most good. 

M This good man was a mere scholar, and as heedless of and 
shiftless for the world as most men ; yet God looked to one that 
could not look to himself; and he sinking honour, God gave him 
other things. He was a holy man and profound scholar, his gift 
lay rather in training up scholars in Academical learning than in 
any pulpit discourses, and God made good use of him that way." 
(Heywood's Diar. IV. 10, 36, 37.) 

He kept a school for the training of young men at 
Haigh Hall, a large mansion at the bottom of Haigh 
Moor, near Woodchurch, belonging to the Saviles, where 
among others Samuel Bailey, nephew of Joshua Bailey, 
of Allerton, and a son of his sister, Mrs. Murcot, were 
educated.* On the death of Christopher Marshall, 
pastor of the Congregational church at Topcliffe (Wood- 
church), he was chosen teacher of that church, along 
with Samuel Bailey, pastor, being admitted member 
November 19th, 1673, and ordained teacher March 25th, 

* " Educated at the feet of a learned Gamaliel."— O.H. (Mrs. Murcot 
died 1654.) 



ioo YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY 

1674. Bailey died December 5th, 1675, at the age of 
27 ; when the entire charge of the church devolved on 
Marshall, who remained there until his death, May 25th, 
1681. He was buried in the Tingley Burial Ground (May 
27th), which Captain John Pickering had given five years 
before. Thoresby says that while on his way to visit 
**■ honest Mr. Marsden, a learned and judicious noncon- 
formist, he met a messenger with the sad tidings of his 
death" ; and that he " rode to Tingley to the funeral of 
that holy man Mr. Gamaliel Marsden, whose death 
was much bewailed, not by relations only, but many 
good people and godly ministers as a public loss." 
Thomas Jolly (in an unpublished letter to Mr. John 
Pickering, dated June 27th, 1681) wrote : 

" When I heard of the decease of my dear brother Marsden I 
was much afflicted with the church's loss of that holy and able 
instrument. My acquaintance with him hath been of ancient date, 
and I feel my affection to be deeper than I was aware. My heart 
still aches and bleeds for this grievous blow which the Lord hath 
given us all by His own hand." 

He was a man of great piety and integrity, a sound 
scholar, though not a very fluent or acceptable preacher. 
He was Congregational, but of a moderate spirit. 

90. MARSDEN, Jeremiah (1626-1684), was ejected from the 
Vicarage of East Ardsley, near Wakefield, in 1662. 

He was second son of Ralph Marsden, formerly curate 
of Coley, in the parish of Halifax, where he was born. 
He was educated at Manchester school, admitted to 
Christ's College, Cambridge, as pensioner, in 1647, and 
continued there two years. On leaving the University 
he taught a school at Great Neston, Cheshire, where his 
elder brother Samuel was then minister; and became an 
occasional preacher at various places. According to his 
own account of his own life he resided and preached in 
Wirrall, Blackburn and Heapy (a chapelry six miles 
from Blackburn), Allerton and Thornton (near Bradford), 
Halifax and Whalley. He came to assist Mr. Booth, 
the vicar of Halifax, on the 30th November, 1651, and 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 



left for High Shuttleworth, near Padiham, May ioth, 1652. 
He is mentioned in the Parliamentary Survey (1650 or 
1654) as at Thornton chapelry, in the parish of Bradford, 
"aconstant preaching minister." He accompaniedThomas 
Jolly, of Altham, to London, May 24th, 1654, to undergo 
an examination by the committee for the approbation of 
Public Preachers, and was approved on the recommenda- 
tion of Mr. Tombes. 

About this time he became a preacher in Ireland, 
where two of his brothers resided. On his return (1658) 
he accepted an invitation to Kendal in Westmoreland* 
and obtained an augmentation of £60 for one year as 
lecturer there ; but meeting with some opposition he 
stayed only nine months. He had a second invitation 
to Ireland, this time to Carlow. Adam Martindale says 
that he was " of the Congregational way, and signed the 
Agreement (between the Presbyterians and Independents) 
at Manchester, July 13th, 1659." He then removed to 
Hull, " where he and his family were placed in a garrison 
of safety and a harbour of plenty, and amongst a number 
of serious Christians, with whom he was well accepted." 
After about fifteen months' residence there, as chaplain to 
the garrison,! he was driven by the violence of the times 
to Haigh Hall, where his brother Gamaliel lived, and 
had good help from the Society of Christians there 
(at Woodchurch) under Christopher Marshall. For 
refusing the oath of allegiance after the Restoration he 
was committed to York Castle (February 13th, 1661), but 
soon released. While at Haigh Hall he was invited 
to preach at West Ardsley, which was without a minister, 
and he continued there for three-quarters of a year, until 
silenced by the Act of Uniformity. 

Just before the passing of this Act he was present at a 
meeting of Congregational ministers at Sowerby, including 
Samuel Eaton, Michael Briscoe, Thomas Jolly, Henry 

* According to Jolly's Notebook (p. xv.) he was at Kendal in 
1658. 

t John Canne, preacher to the garrison, had removed in 1657. Robert 
Luddington was minister of the Congregational Church. 



102 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 



Roote, Christopher Marshall, Thomas Smallwood and 
others (July 5th, 1662) ; of which information was given 
as a suspected plot, and a Commission appointed to 
make inquiry concerning it. He was accused of taking 
an active part in the so-called Farnley Wood Plot in 
the following year : 

"July 7, i662(?3). The King to the Duke of Buckingham sends a 
letter to inform him of the factions meetings about Leeds and 
Wakefield, where Nesse (Christopher Nesse, of Leeds,) and 
Marsden, under the profession of godly preachers, possess the 
minds of the seduced auditors who flock to them from all parts 
with dislike to the present government. 

" Dec. 6, 1663. Questions to be demanded of Capt. or Cornet 
Cary as to whether he was in Yorkshire in October at Haigh Hall, 
near Wakefield, and Gildersome, near Leeds ; whether he conversed 
with John and William Dickenson or Jeremy Marsden ; whether he 
took a message to defer the insurrection because of some disunion ; 
or whether he assured them that many who came with the General 
(Monk) out of Scotland would join in the plot." (Cal. of State 
Papers.) 

In his flight out of the county on account of this 
alleged plot he was stopped at Coventry by a constable 
and brought before the Mayor, who, however, found no 
reason for his detention ; and came to London, where for 
the sake of greater security he assumed the name of 
Ralphson (his father's name being Ralph). He met with 
many friends, particularly a good widow with whom he 
and his family dwelt for some time. He then went to 
Henley-on-Thames, where for about a year he preached 
in a barn, and suffered much persecution. The barn is 
believed to have occupied the site of the present chapel. 

From a manuscript which he left behind him, entitled 
Contemplatio Vita Miserabilis, it appears that his whole 
life was a scene of afflictions and " a perfect peregrina- 
tion." About 1674 he mentions his twenty-second 
remove. He resolved never to be silenced for Christ by 
man or bare law till personal force did compel ; and 
blessed God that though he was often pursued and hunted 
from place to place from 1662 to 1670, and his pursuers 
were sometimes near, they failed to arrest him. On July 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 103 

15th, 1675, being found reading the Scriptures at Henley, 
he was apprehended and sent prisoner to Oxford. 
Thoresby heard him preach in London in October, 1677, 
and says (evidently with some prejudice against him 
as not altogether orthodox), " Mr. Ralphson made a 
sermon, but in my opinion none of the best. His subject 
should have been that sufferings precede the glory of 
God's children ; he more than hinted at Christ's personal 
reign." Overtures were made to him to succeed Thomas 
Hardcastle, of Bristol, who died in 1679. He was also 
invited to become the successor of Mr. Andrew Car- 
michael at Lothbury. He sometimes held meetings at 
Founders' Hall, and afterwards, by the permission of Mr. 
Thomas Lye, at Dyers Hall. 

The most severe persecution which nonconformists had 
ever known now began, and Marsden was seized and 
committed to Newgate. Of his trial, along with that of 
Francis Bampfeld and Thomas Delaune, the latter writes 
as follows : 

" On December 10, 1683, two bills were found against Mr. Ralphson 
and me by the Grand Jury of London. On the 13th we were called 
to the Sessions House in the Old Bailey, to which we pleaded Not 
Guilty. On the 16th of January, 1683-4, we were called to the outer- 
bar, after the attendance of divers hours in a place not very lovely 
and in the sharpest winter that you have known Lthe great frost that 
continued from early in December, 1683, to February, 1684] , which 
it is likely proved the original of that indisposition which carried 
my two friends beyond the jurisdiction of Sessions, bale-docks, or 
press-yards to a glorious mansion of rest. One of the gentlemen of 
the law, I think the Attorney-General, was pleased to say, that the 
prisoner that stood before (for Mr. Ralphson was tried before me) 
did labour to undermine the state ; and that man (meaning me), 
would undermine the church ; so that, to incense the Jury against 
us, he said, Here's church and state struck at." 

[They were each fined 100 marks, and condemned to be kept 
prisoners till the fine was paid, and to find security for their good 
behaviour for a whole year afterwards ; and that the books and 
seditious libels by them published should be burnt with fire before 
the Royal Exchange in London.] 

"The Court told Mr. Marsden and me that in respect to our edu- 
cation as scholars we should not be pilloried, though it was said we 
deserved it. We were sent back to a place of confinement, and the 



104 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

next execution day our books were burnt and we continue here ; but 
since I writ this Mr. Ralphson had a supersedas by death to a better 
place. 

" Mr. Bampfield and Mr. Ralphson, who were my dear and 
excellent companions, and whose absence I cannot but bemoan as 
having lost in them a society that was truly pious, truly sweet, and 
truly amiable." 

Marsden (" Ralphson ") was 58 years of age at the time 
of his death, having outlived his three brothers, of whom 
he says, " they all obtained mercy to be faithful." He 
was written against by Baxter (1684) on account of his 
rigorous, separating principles, which led him to decry 
Parish worship as idolatry ; and is said to have been 
inclined to Fifth Monarchy opinions. Calamy says " he 
was of narrow principles in admitting to baptism and the 
Lord's Supper, and blamed others for their latitude." 

Bampfeld died February 16th, 1683-4: the date of 
Marsden's death is not mentioned. De Laune continued 
in close confinement in Newgate about fifteen months ; 
his wife and two little children were with him and died 
there ; and he himself sunk under the burden and died 
there also. 

91. MARSHALL, Christopher (1614-1673), was ejected from 
the Vicarage of Woodchurch or West Ardsley t near 
Wakefield. 

He was born in Lincolnshire, and educated partly at 
Cambridge and partly under John Cotton, D.D., of 
Boston, Lincolnshire; who being greatly harassed on 
account of his nonconformity fled to New England 
(1633), and was chosen Teacher of the Congregational 
Church at Boston, Massachusetts; whom he followed 
thither, and of whose church he became a member in 
August, 1634. He continued his preparation for the 
ministry under that eminent man, and was admitted to 
the freedom of Massachusetts, May 6th, 1635. Calamy 
says " he was so zealous against error and so impartial 
that he was a witness against the famous Mrs. Hutchin- 
son and caused her to be [contributed to her being] cast 
out of the church for the disturbances she caused, though 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 105 

he was related to her by marrying her niece."* It is 
stated that " he was of Cotton's party in the great 
schism of 1637, but not dismissed as a dangerous heretic ; 
so that perhaps he was a student of divinity; and he 
certainly married here, for his daughter Anne was 
baptized May 13th, 1638, at our church ; he adhered to 
Wheelwright (brother-in-law of Mrs. Hutchinson) at 
Exeter (whither Wheelwright went after leaving Boston), 
and with him had dismission, January, 1639, from our 
church. He probably went home in 1640 or 1641 " 
(more likely a little later). f 

We next find him acting as minister at Horbury, near 
Wakefield ; and at Woodchurch, where, according to 
Heywood, a Congregational Church was formed (doubt- 
less under the influence of Marshall, in or before 1648). 
In the Parliamentary Survey of 1650 (ordered February 
14th, 1649-50) it is stated that Mr. Marshall is the 
minister of Woodchurch, " an able preaching minister," 
with a stipend of £30 a year allowed by Lord Savile, but 
arbitrary. Of this church the notorious James Nayler 
became a member on his return from the army in 
Scotland (1650), and having embraced the views of 
George Fox, the Quaker, who visited the neighbourhood 
in 1651, left its fellowship and became a preacher of the 
New Light. Marshall was held in good repute in the 
surrounding district as Pastor of a Congregational 
Church, and was consulted in the formation of other 
churches of the same faith and order (Jolly's Note 
Book). A list of church members is preserved, commen- 
cing in 1653, though some of them were doubtless 
admitted before this date; and from this we learn that 
the elders were John Issott, of Horbury, and John 
Holdsworth, of Alverthorpe ; that its fellowship was 
joined by a good many persons during " the days of 
Oliver " ; that after the Restoration it was joined by 

* Mrs. Hutchinson came to Boston September 18th, 1634. Her 
younger sister, Mary (Wheelwright), came in 1636. 

t " Genealogical Diet, of the First Settlers in New England," by James 
Savage, Boston, 1861. 



106 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

several of the ejected ministers ; and that it was long 
a centre of very considerable influence. 

Marshall was assistant commissioner for ejecting 
ignorant and scandalous ministers in the West Riding, 
1654. He continued at his post until the Black Bartho- 
lomew's Day, August 24th, 1662. He was present at a 
meeting of Congregational ministers and others at 
Sowerby, July 16th, 1662 (see Henry Roote) ; and was 
troubled on account of the Farnley Wood Plot in the 
following year. On his ejection from the living of 
Woodchurch he appears to have resided at Topcliffe 
Hall, an old mansion belonging to Lord Savile, about a 
mile distant ; and here the members of his flock who 
sympathized with his principles gathered and held their 
meetings. On the passing of the Five Mile Act (1665) he 
removed to Horbury, where he seems to have preached 
in the Parish Chapel, for it is recorded that at the 
Sessions at York " a true Bill was found against Chris- 
topher Marshall, of Horbury, clerk, for saying on 
August, 1666, in the pulpit at Horbury, * Those that have 
taken the protestation and after come to the Common 
Prayer of the Church are perjured persons before God 
and man.' " (York Depositions.) When persecution 
somewhat relaxed he returned and renewed his ministra- 
tions at Topcliffe. 

Under the Declaration of Indulgence one of the first 
licences obtained was that of Christopher Marshall, 
April 2nd, 1672, " for his own house in Topcliff, 
formerly belonging to the Savills, now sub-divided be- 
tween several clothiers." A mistake in the wording of the 
licence occasioned a fresh application to the following 
effect : " I desire the alteration of the term Presbyterian 
to Congregational in Mr. Christopher Marshall's licence " ; 
and another was granted (October 28th) for " the 
house of Mr. Christopher Marshall, at West Ardsley, 
as a Congregational teacher." He did not live long to 
enjoy the liberty of worship thus afforded ; but died early 
in the following year. In addition to his troubles on 
account of his nonconformity he suffered much domestic 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 107 

affliction. His wife, " our deare Sister Sarah, the wife of 
our Pastor," was buried February 23rd, 1658 ; his son 
Samuel the same year, May 12th ; and three other 
children, by Sarah his second wife, at a later date. 

He was a good scholar, of considerable abilities, and of 
a serious spirit, but inclined to melancholy on account of 
many and personal afflictions. He had a sound mind in 
an infirm body, from which he was released January 28th, 
ifyZy aged 59. The list of members before mentioned 
contains the following entries : 

1673. Nov. 19, Admitted Mr. Samuel Bailey — or- 
dained pastor, March 25, 1674 ; died Dec. 6, 1675. 
— — Admitted Mr. Gamaliel Marsden. 
— Ordained at the same time. 
After the death of the last named he was succeeded by 
others until, owing to the decrease of the population of 
the neighbourhood and the growth of other churches at 
Morley, Wakefield, and elsewhere, the church became 
extinct about the year 1750. 

92. MEDCALFE, Alexander, was ejected from the 

Vicarage of StiUington, and afterwards conformed. 

He succeeded George Leake, who was instituted 
August 12th, 1646, on the voluntary resignation of 
Francis Beaumont, instituted at Sutton-in-Holderness, 
June 3rd, 1646 (Lords' Jour. VIII. 325, 489). Thoresby 
heard Mr. Medcalfe preach at Leeds, October 2nd, 1681, 
who " made a very ordinary mean sermon, full of bitter, 
malicious reflections upon the nonconformists " (Diar. 
I. 109). But query, was this James Medcalfe, who was 
at Chapel Allerton, Leeds, 1663 ? 

93. MEKAL (or Michel), was ejected from the Rectory of 

Settrington and Scagglethorpe, in the East Riding. 

He is said to have been a kinsman of Bradshaw, the 
regicide. He was presented by the Custodians of the 
Liberties of England (Additional Charters, 17,226). 
Henry Hibbert was minister in 1650 (Pari. Sur.). 



io8 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

Walker says that Thomas Carter, D.D., was turned out 
by the soldiers for Michal, who paid him his fifths, or 
allowed him £30 per annum. 

94. MICKLETHWAITE, Thomas, M.A. ( -1663), was 
ejected from the Rectory of Cherry Burton, near Beverley. 

He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge ; 
presented to this rectory (of which the notorious Bishop 
Bonner was rector 1530) in 1613 ; was on a royal 
commission appointed in 1632 to enquire concerning a 
misapplication of the funds bestowed on St. Mary's 
Church, Beverley ; previous to 1643 he was for a short 
time at White Roothing, Essex, a living sequestered 
from Charles Laventhorpe ; took a decided part with 
the Parliament in the civil war, and was one of the 
members of the Assembly of Divines. Fifty-three persons 
" took the Scottish covenant under Mr. Thomas Mickle- 
thwaite " at Cherry Burton, February 19th, 1646. He 
was returned as " a preaching minister " (Pari. Sur.) ; 
was an assistant commissioner for ejecting ignorant and 
insufficient ministers (1654) ; signed certificate for John 
Lowthorpe, rector of Halsham, Holderness, July 23rd, 
1658 ; and performed marriages in that year at Cherry 
Burton. On his ejection in 1662 he was succeeded by 
Thomas Gayton, presented by Sir John Hotham ; and 
in the Parish Register of Burials occurs the following 
entry : " 1663, Mr. Thomas Micklethwaite, minister of 
the Ghospell, November the 3rd day." 

He had several sons, the eldest of whom, John 
(born 1612), after studying at Leyden, Padua, and 
Oxford, was physician at St. Bartholomew's Hospital 
in 1652, and president of the College of Physicians in 
1681. In that year he was knighted by Charles II., 
whom he had treated professionally a short time before. 
[See Sidney's " Diary and Correspondence of Charles 
II."] 

A transcript of the Parish Register of Cherry Burton, 
made at the cost of Thomas Micklethwaite, was found in 
his library after his death, and given by Sir John 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 109 

Micklethwaite to John Johnson, the rector, 1681-1703. 
An entry made by Johnson at a later date is worth 
noticing : " James Deane, the ringleader, first founder 
of the Separatists in this parish, was buried in woollen, 
November 30, 1691." The records of the Quarter 
Sessions before 1708 are lost ; but after that date we 
find the houses of Ann Deane (widow of James) and of 
Joshua Waringham recorded as meeting-places of dis- 
senters in 1712, and that of William Walker in 1713. 

95. MILLWARD, John, M.A. ( -1684), was ejected 

from the Rectory of Dav field, near Barnsley, in 1660. 

He was son of George Millward, of Shepton Mallett, 
Somerset; educated at New Inn Hall, Oxford, matricu- 
lated March 16th, 1637-8, aet. 18 ; B.A., July, 1641 ; a 
delegate of the visitors 1646, and Fellow of Corpus 
Christi College, Oxford. 

He was appointed rector of Darfield, where there were 
both a rector and a vicar; rector, "Walter Stonehouse, 
a constant preacher of good conversation " (Pari. Sur.), 
who is mentioned by Walker as a sufferer ; vicar, Henry 
Lourdsey, who "discharges a moiety both of Darfield 
and Wombwell, a Chapelry of Darfield (Pari. Sur.). He 
was appointed one of the visitors of the proposed Uni- 
versity of Durham in 1657. At the Restoration he 
resigned the living. Robert Rogers, S.T.B., was 
presented by Charles II., September 3rd, 1660. Mill- 
ward removed to London and continued a nonconformist 
till his death, which occurred at Islington in 1684. 
Two of his sermons are printed in the Morning 
Exercises. He was an Independent, not ordained 
(Morrice). 

96. MILNER, Jeremiah, B.A. (1630- 1680), was ejected from 

the Vicarage of Rothwell, near Leeds. 

He was born at Notton, in the parish of Royston, 
W.R., where his father, Thomas Milner, was a husband- 
man; educated at Hemsworth under Mr. Pullen; 






no YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

admitted to St. John's College, under Mr. Pickering, 
June 17th, 1648, aet. 18 ; presented to Rothwell by 
Lady Mary Armin, of Monk Bretton, in the parish of 
Royston, January 26th, 1658, certificate signed by 
Thomas Walker, Rd. Shuttleworth, and Robert Armi- 
tage, minister of Holbeck; and prosecuted for not 
reading the Book of Common Prayer, " out on bail " 
March 1st, 1661 (York Depositions, p. 85). After his 
ejection he retired to his native place; had licence 
to preach at the Chapel at Great Houghton, belonging 
to Lady Rodes — his licence being altered from Presby- 
terian to Congregational (May 2nd, 1672) ; and died 
there March 7th, 1680, aged 50. He was a pious 
minister, useful and laborious, of good parts and com- 
petent learning ; and his labours were very successful. 

97. MOORE, Edmund ( -1684), ejected from the Chapelry 

of Baildon, in the parish of Otley. 

He was described in 1650 as "a preaching minister " 
(Pari. Sur.) ; often preached at Bingley before the Act 
of Uniformity ; soon afterwards conformed ; he preached 
at Coley Chapel, December 6th, 1663, and was a 
"reputed Antinomian " (Heywood : Diar. I. 184); at 
Baildon collections were made in 1665, the year of the 
plague, Edmund Moore being curate, "John Mitten and 
William Bowling Churchwards " (Cudworth : " Round 
about Bradford ") ; preached at Coley about six months 
(1671) ; became curate at Haworth in 1675, and died 
there July nth, 1684. 

98. MOORHOUSE, Henry ( -1690), ejected from the 

Rectory of Castleford. 

He had been army chaplain ; succeeded Dr. Bradley, 
at Castleford (who had also the living of Ackworth (see 
Birkbeck) ; signed the West Riding Ministers' Attesta- 
tion in 1648 ; " an able painfull preaching minister " (Pari. 
Sur.) ; an assistant commissioner for ejecting ignorant 
and insufficient ministers in 1654. 

Some years after his ejection he conformed, and in 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. in 

1681 became vicar of Rotherham. " Mr. Moorhouse, 
vicar of Rotherham, died August 5, 1690, an old man, 
had been a nonconformist eight years, succeeded Mr. 
Bovil " (" Northowram Register "). 

99. NESBITT [Anesbet] , Philip ( -1663), was ejected from 
the Rectory of Kirklington, six miles south of Bedale* 
North Riding. 

There is an entry in the Marriage Register of St. 
Martin-cum-Gregory : " 1616, April 30, Philip Nesbit to 
Elizabeth Hoyle," and in the Burial Register, " 1663 , 
October 15, Mr. Nesbett buried." The living of Kirk- 
lington was void by the death of Mr. Daggett in 1644, 
and Mr. Nesbitt was appointed to it in the following 
year. In 1654 he was an assistant to the commis- 
sioners in the North Riding for ejecting ignorant and 
scandalous ministers. 

He was a gentleman of distinguished abilities, great 
learning and a public spirit, who went about doing good. 
He much honoured his office and doctrine by a very 
prudent and engaging conversation, and especially by 
his charity and catholicity. 

100. NESSE, Christopher, M.A. (1621-1705), was ejected 
from the Parish Church at Leeds in 1661. 

He was son of Thomas Nesse, husbandman, of 
North Cave, in the East Riding; born there December 
26th, 162 1 ; educated at a private school by John 
Seaman, vicar of South Cave, for ten years ; admitted 
to St. John's College, Cambridge, May 17th, 1638, aet. 
16 ; sizar under Dominus Wood, surety Mr. Nicholson. 

He preached for awhile (1645) at South Cliffe Chapel, 
under the superintendence of his uncle, the vicar of 
North Cave, William Brearcliffe; and then removed 
into Holderness, and afterwards to Beverley, where he 
taught a school and preached occasionally at the 
Minster. In 1650, when Samuel Winter, D.D., of Cot- 
tingham, was made Provost of Trinity College, Dublin, 
he resigned this living to Mr. Nesse, who continued five 



1 1 2 YORKSHIRE P URITA NISM A ND EA RL Y NONCONFORMITY. 

or six years and was instrumental in the conversion of 
many persons; particularly of Thomas Raspin, one of 
the most substantial persons in that town, when gray 
hairs were upon him (appointed sequestrator of the 
profits of the living in 1643). He then, about 1656, 
became lecturer at the Parish Church at Leeds, of 
which William Styles, M.A., formerly of Hessle-cum- 
Hull, was the Puritan vicar ; and continued at his post 
till after the death of the latter (March, 1659-60) and the 
appointment of a new vicar, John Lake, D.D., after- 
wards Bishop of Chichester and a nonjuror. With him 
there was uncomfortable clashing, what was delivered in 
the morning being confuted in the afternoon. " I was 
forced from my pulpit at Leeds," Nesse says, "for 
teaching the doctrine that all Divine worship must have 
a Divine warrant, preaching ever after thereabout where 
God opened a door." (Letter to Thoresby, March 10th, 
1693.) Even before he was silenced by the Act of 
Uniformity he discontinued his ministry at Leeds, and 
became a member of the Congregational Church at 
Woodchurch, under Christopher Marshall, April 21st, 
1661 ; and preached regularly at St. Mary's Chapel, 
Morley, the minister of which, Mr. Etherington, had 
conformed and removed to Bramley, near Leeds. 

Under the Five Mile Act (1665) he retired to Clayton, 
near Bradford, where he was visited by Oliver Heywood, 
June 4th, 1666 ; but he had a house in Morley in that 
year, being assessed there for three hearths (under the 
Hearth Tax). The Duke of Buckingham would have 
complimented him into conformity, as related by himself 
in his "Divine Legacy" (p. 203). Heywood refers 
pathetically to the death of his son Christopher, April 
5th, 1669 : " This day Mr. Nesse buries his sweet son 
that was wont to ride abroad with him. Oh ! why was 
it not my case." He kept a fast with him in the same 
year (July) ; and was reported in the Returns made to 
the Archbishop of Canterbury as holding conventicles in 
several places in the surrounding district. 

When the times grew more favourable he purchased 




CHRISTOPHER NESSE, M.A. 



To face page 112. 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 113 

a house in Hunslet, where he instructed youth and 
preached in private till 1672, when under the Declaration 
of Indulgence he obtained a licence to preach in the 
Main-riding House beyond the Bridge as a Congrega- 
tionalist (May ist). This meeting-house was opened by 
him on June 3rd, and in it he preached to a numerous 
auditory. Here also he formed a Congregational Church 
in 1674, in the formation of which George Ward, an elder 
of the church in Bradford-dale, and Richard Hargreaves 
and Robert Gledhill, members of the church at Topcliffe 
(Woodchurch), were called in for consultation. " The 
Register of the Day and Year of the Baptism of the 
Church's Children," commenced at this time, contains 
only eight names, one of which is Mehetabel Nesse, 
daughter of Mr. Christopher Nesse, of Hunslet. He 
was much harassed by persecution : " I was excom- 
municated three times," he says, "and a fourth time a 
writ De excommunicato capiendo was issued to take me, 
and another to take Mr. Awkwood, who was taken and 
died in prison." ("Thoresby Correspondence," I. 130.) 
It appears, from the imperfect minutes preserved in the 
church-book, that some difference arose between Nesse 
and his congregation, who, he thought, did not stand by 
him as they should in his troubles ; while they considered 
that he failed without adequate reason to fulfil the duties 
Pof his office. He was, it is said, a man much superior to 
vulgar prejudices ; and going one Christmas day with one 
of his hearers to pay some visits on the congregation, a 
good woman brought out a great Yorkshire goose-pie for 
the entertainment of her visitors. Mr. Nesse's friend 
objected to the dish as savouring of superstition. " Well 
then, brother," said Mr. Nesse, "if these be walls of 
superstition, let us pull them down," and immediately 
set about the work of demolition {Monthly Repository, 
1812). 

He removed to London in 1674 or 1675, and preached 

to a congregation in Salisbury Court, Fleet Street. In 

1684 he found it necessary to conceal himself from the 

officers of the Crown, who had charge of a warrant 

1 



ii4 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

against him ; but he lived to witness the passing of the 
Act of Toleration, and died on his birthday, December 
26th, 1705, aged 84. His remains were interred in 
Bunhill Fields. He was a man of great ability, zeal, 
and energy, and the author of numerous works, all of 
which were published after he left Leeds. 
The following are the titles : 

1. " The Crown and Glory of a Christian," 1676. 

2. " The Christian Walk and Work on Earth," 1677. 

3. " A Protestant Antidote against the Poison of Popery," 1679. 

4. "The Chrystal Mirror or Christian Looking Glass," 1679. 

5. " A Discovery of the Person and Period of Anti-christ," 1679. 

6. " The Devil's Patriarch ; in the Life of Pope Innocent XI.," 

1680. 

7. "A Spiritual Legacy for Young Men," 1681. 

8. " Haifa Sheet on the Blazing Star. 

9. "The Comet," 1681. 

10. " A Whip for the Fool's Back." 

11. " A Key with the Whip." 

12. "A Church History from Adam, and a Scripture Prophecy to 

the End of the World," 1681. 

13. " A Token or New Year's Gift for Children," 1683. 

14. " The Holy Life and Death of J. Draper," 1684. 

15. M Wonderful Signs of Wonderful Times," 1684. 

16. " Advice to the Painter upon the Earl of Shaftesbury's 

enlargement from the Tower." 

17. " An Astrological and Theological Discourse upon the great 

Conjunction." 

18. "A strange and wonderful Trinity, Eclipse, Comet and 

Conjunction." 

19. "The History and Mystery of the Old and New Testament." 

4 vols. 

20. M An Antidote against Arminianism," 1700. 

21. "A Divine Legacy," 1700. 

He left also in manuscript " A Particular Confutation 
of the Roman Religion in all its Doctrines, etc.," and a 
vindication of his own thesis at Leeds, that all Divine 
worship must have a Divine warrant. 

101. NOBLE, John, M.A. (1611-1679), was ejected from the 
Rectory of Kirk Smeaton, seven miles from Barnsley. 

He was born at Asselby, in the parish of Howden ; 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 115 

admitted to Christ's College, Cambridge, 1630, and 
graduated M.A. ; in 1637 appointed vicar of Whitgift, 
and in 1646 removed to Kirk Smeaton; signed the 
West Riding Ministers' Attestation, 1648; "an able 
and painfull preacher " (Pari. Sur.) ; and much troubled 
by disputes with the Quakers, whom he confuted in 
occasional and set disputations. 

After the Restoration he was prosecuted, July 29th, 
1661, for not reading the Book of Common Prayer, and 
11 out on bail " (York Depositions). After the death of 
Joseph Ferret, of Pontefract, in 1663, he regularly 
preached at the house of Leonard Ward, at the Court, 
Tanshelf, for which he had licence as a Presbyterian 
(May 1st, 1672) ; and died February nth, 1679, aged 
68. He was one of a happy memory and great pre- 
sence and readiness of wit; a mighty opposer of the 
factions and hurries of the times. He was an excellent 
disputant, and never lost or disparaged the cause which 
he undertook, nor his reputation by ignorance or passion. 
He was not related to David Noble, of Heckmondwike, 
who was a Scotchman. At Pontefract he was succeeded 
by Peter Naylor. 

102. ORD, was ejected at Cowesbey (Cowsby). — (Morrice). 

The only place of this name in Yorkshire is in the 
Archdeaconry of Cleveland, a rectory, six miles N.N.E. 
from Thirsk. Nothing is known of this minister. 

103. PACKLAND, John. 

It is uncertain whether he was an ejected minister. 
But he had licence for the house of John Newton, at 
Anlaby, near Hull, being " of the Congregational way." 

104. PECKET, Philip, was ejected from the Vicarage of 

Lastingham, in the North Riding. 

He was here in 1650 (Pari. Sur.) ; and signed a 
certificate in 1658. Francis Flathers was presented by 
Charles II. in 1662. A John Pecket was a preaching 



n6 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

minister at Sherburn, in Harford Lathe, East Riding 
(Pari. Sur.). Nothing more is known about either. 

105. PEEBLES. 

A minister of this name is said by Calamy and Morrice 
to have been ejected somewhere in the West Riding. 
Nothing is known of him. 

106. PERROT, Richard, B.D. (1629- 1670), was ejected from 

the Minster at York in 1660. 

He was son of Richard Perrot, D.D., vicar of Hessle- 
cum-Hull, who is mentioned by Walker as having suffered 
the loss of the prebend of Oswalkirk, although allowed to 
keep his other preferments ; but he died before the civil 
war began, according to the following entry in the Burial 
Register of Holy Trinity, Hull : " 1641, Dec. 21, Mr. 
Richard Perrott, vicar of Hessell and Hull." 

Richard Perrot, junior, was educated at first at the 
notable school at Coxwold, founded by Sir John Hart ; 
whence he went to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, 
graduated B.A. 1648, Socius 1649, Fellow of Sir John 
Hart's foundation and M.A. 1652, Unus e Prsedictoribus 
ab Academia emittendus 1656, S. T. Bac. 1659 (" Baker's 
Register "). He wrote an elegy and epitaph on his friend, 
Edward Bright, A.M., a Puritan minister suspended from 
his office and benefice by Archbishop Laud ; afterwards 
Fellow of Emanuel College, Cambridge, and minister of 
Christ Church, London (Brook's "Lives"). 

He was appointed, March 4th, 1658-9, to be one of 
the four preachers in the city of York, upon the pre- 
sentation of Richard, Lord Protector, under his seal and 
the certificates of Edward Bowles, Thomas Calvert, Elias 
Pawson, and Peter Williams. He was one of the execu- 
tors under the will of Edward Bowles. After his ejection 
he lived some time with Dr. Robinson, of Barmeston, in 
Holderness, where he studied and practised medicine 
with great success. He died at York in 1670, aged 42 ; 
his mother Dorothy, his son, and lastly Alderman 
Perrot (Lord Mayor, 1693) being commemorated on the 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 117 

same stone. He was a most learned, ingenious man, and 
an incomparable preacher. His epitaph in the church 
of St. Martin's, Micklegate, describes him as " Eboraci 
concionator pientissimus " (Kenrick). 

107. PICKERING, Robert, M.A. (1636-1680), was ejected 

from the Chapelry of Barley, in the parish of Bray ton, 
near Selby. 

He was born at Kippax ; educated at Sidney College, 
Cambridge, graduated M.A. 1659, an d succeeded William 
Douglas, who was preacher at Barley in 1650 (Pari. Sur.). 
After his ejectment he became chaplain to Robert 
Dyneley, Esq., at Bramhope, near Otley (on the death 
of Jeremiah Crossley, in 1665), whence he removed 
to Morley, 1678, where he preached until a few days 
before his death, October 4th, 1680, at the age of 44. 
He was a great scholar and a useful preacher. His 
remains were interred in Morley grave-yard, where his 
tombstone bears the inscription : " He accounted himself 
the meanest servant in the work of Jesus Christ." 

" I was at Morley, December nth, 1678 (says 
Heywood), visiting Mr. Pickering there. Mr. Dawson 
and I discoursing with him, he told us that he and some 
Congregational brethren meeting at Mr. Noble's (newly 
gone to house), fell into discourse ; some of them said 
that if the Presbyterians had power they would be as 
tyrannical and arbitrary as the bishops, with several 
other bitter, taunting words; Mr. Pickering was con- 
cerned to defend them, sweat at it, but they overlaid 
him, being too many for him. Alas ! alas ! are we but 
here yet ! Lord pity us. And I have heard some 
censorious brethren say the Independent Ministers were 
like little Popes among their own people. It's fit we 
should all be under hatches." 

108. PLACKSTONE [Plaxton] , John, (1602-1686), was 

ejected from the Rectory of Scrayingham, or Skerring- 
kam, eight miles from York. 

Here the famous Presbyterian, John Shaw, was 



n8 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

minister in 1645 ; and at a later date Plaxton was 
appointed to the living. On July 2nd, 1658, a certificate 
to William Dealtrey, on his presentation to Full Sutton, 
was signed by Jo. Plaxton, of Skerringham. 

After his ejection he lived at York, where he died in 
1686, aged 84. 

He was an active, judicious, grave, old man, and main- 
tained his integrity to the last. 

He is probably the John Pluxton who, on February 3rd, 
1673, applied for a licence for the house of George 
Taylor at Nun Monkton, but was too late to obtain it. 

109. POMROY (or Pomeroy), John, was ejected from the 
Perpetual Curacy of Barmby-on-Marsh, in the parish of 
Howden, three and a-half miles distant, E.R. [Calamy, 
1st Edn., says from the rectory of Bransby, which is 
near Easingwold, N.R.] 

A family of this name held the manor of Heming- 
brough. In 1626 John Pomeroy was appointed curate 
of St. John's, Beverley (the Minster), where he continued 
many years. He is said to have preached at the Minster 
on Sunday mornings, and Stephen Hill in the afternoons. 
He kept school in Beverley, and prepared several for the 
University, 1630. 

About 1650 he was assistant to James Burney (presented 
1632) as preacher at Beverley, with a salary of £16 per 
annum (Chancery Surv., Vol. III., p. 52, St. John's) ; Mr. 
Wilson being vicar of St. Mary's, "a constant preacher." 
His last dated signature at Beverley of which we know, is 
February nth, 1652-3. 

In 1654 we find him at Barlby, a chapelry in the parish 
of Hemingbrough, two and a-half miles from Selby : 
" Mr. Pomroy, a preaching minister, salary arbitrary " 
(Pari. Sur.). In 1655, together with Joseph Kellett and 
Paul Glissen, he signed an Address to the Reader in a 
tract against the Quakers. In 1657 tne minister's name 
at Barlby is given as Hanby. 

Probably at this time, certainly before the Restoration, 
he removed to Barmby-on-Marsh, about five miles from 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 119 

Barlby. The inhabitants of Barmby had the unusual 
privilege of electing their own minister. But he is 
mentioned as marrying a couple at Barlby on January 
20th, 1661-2. 

After the ejection he became chaplain to Sir Wm. 
Strickland at Boynton, near Bridlington, but did not 
long survive, and died at Beverley. He is described as 
"a grave old man," of considerable abilities and an 
exemplary conversation. 

One of the same name, perhaps his son, made a will at 
Barmby on June 16th, 1683, leaving to his wife a house 
in " Lasgate " [Lairgate], Beverley. ("History of 
Hemingbrough.") 

no. PRIME, Edward (1631-1708), was ejected from the 
Parish Church of Sheffield, of which he was assistant 
minister. 

He was born at Weston, in Derbyshire ; educated at 
Chesterfield Grammar School and at Christ's College, 
Cambridge. On leaving the University he became tutor 
in the family of Thomas Westby, J. P., of Ravenfield ; 
and afterwards minister of Baslow in the Peak. In 1655 
he was chosen by the burgesses of Sheffield one of the 
assistant ministers at the Parish Church, of which Mr. 
Fisher was vicar. 

After his ejection (along with the vicar and the other 
assistants) he was more fortunate than many of his 
brethren in escaping the operation of the severe laws 
against nonconformists, and was bountifully provided 
for by generous friends. He continued to reside in 
Sheffield ; and under the Declaration of Indulgence had 
licence to preach in his own house as a Presbyterian 
(May 29th, 1672) ; the malthouse of Robert Brilsworth 
being also licensed for the same purpose (June 10th). 
He also kept up a fortnightly lecture at Weston from the 
time of his ejectment to his death, forty-five years. Under 
the Toleration Act his house at Sheffield was recorded for a 
meeting of Protestant Dissenters, July 31st, 1689 ; and 



120 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

he frequently preached at Attercliffe. He continued his 
ministry till numerous infirmities disabled him. He 
always very solemnly observed Bartholomew's Day, and 
preached upon that occasion. The last time was in 1707, 
on the text, Josh. xiv. 10: "And now behold the 
Lord hath kept me alive these forty and five years." He 
died April 16th, 1708, aged about 77 years, and was 
interred in the parish churchyard, being the last of six 
of the ejected ministers laid therein, viz. : — Birkbeck 
1674, Durant 1678, Richard Taylor 1680, Hancock 1684, 
Baxter 1697, and himself. His funeral sermon was 
preached from Heb. xii. 23, by his son-in-law, Robert 
Fern, of Wirksworth,* and was published. His learning, 
piety, and ministerial gifts were very conspicuous. He 
had a warm heart and a clear methodical head ; and was 
distinguished for a latitude of judgment above many, so 
that he did not refuse occasional communion with his 
conforming brethren. He had a respect for all godly 
and pious ministers, whether of one denomination or 
another, and kept up a loving correspondence with them 
to the last. 

in. PROCTER, Anthony, M.A. ( -1702), was ejected 
from the Vicarage of Well, four miles from Masham 
and Bedale, and afterwards conformed. 

He was appointed vicar of Masham and Kirkby Malzeard 
in 1651, and removed to Well in 1655. After his ejection 
he resided at Kirkby Malzeard, four miles from Masham, 
where he had licence for a meeting in his own house as 
a Presbyterian (November 20th, 1672). One of his name 
(perhaps his son) was received into Frankland's Academy 
at Rathmell (April 7th, 1670). On conforming he was 
presented to the curacy of Ravenstonedale, Westmore- 
land, by the patron, Philip, Lord Wharton (October 
23rd, 1673) ; he afterwards became rector of Deane, 1689, 
and was buried July 28th, 1702. 

* His daughter Hephzibah was married (1) to Chr. Richardson, and (2) 
to R. Fern. 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 12I 

112. PROCTER, Charles, was ejected from the Vicarage of 

Whitkivk, near Leeds. 

He was there in 1650, " a painfull preaching minister " 
(Pari. Sur.). 

He is not mentioned by Calamy ; but see Gentleman's 
Magazine, 1811, Jan. 21, Mar. 209. 

113. RATHBAND, Nathaniel, M.A., was ejected from the 

Rectory of Ripley, near Knaresbrough, in 1662. 

He was son of William Rathband, who was a notable 
minister at Blackley, Lanes. ; appointed by the House of 
Lords to Leighton Buzzard (1643) ; member of the 
Assembly of Divines ; and author of " A Grave and 
Modest Confutation of the Errors of the Brownists," 
1644. His brother William was ejected at Southweald, 
near Brentwood, and died in 1695. Nathaniel took his 
degree at Edinburgh University; became curate of the 
chapelry of Sowerby, in the parish of Halifax, 1635 ; was 
approved by the Assembly as "fit to be the fourth minis- 
ter of York," 1645. He signed the West Riding 
Ministers' Attestation, 1648, and signed a certificate, 1650. 
He was minister at Prestwich from 1652 to 1656, when 
he became rector of Ripley and resigned at the 
Restoration. 

He is not mentioned by Calamy. One of the clergy of 
York (Newcome) saw him there in 1665 ; but what 
became of him is unknown. A Mr. Rathband had licence 
at Horsemondel, Kent, 1672 ; he may or may not be the 
same. 

"John Kershaw, M.A., succeeded him at Ripley, died 
1684 J ne was a Halifax man, and had found shelter frorn 
Parliament at Mrs. Hutton's, Poppleton " (Kirkburton, 
p. 90). 

114. RICHARDSON, Christopher, M.A. (1618-1698), was 

ejected from the Rectory of Kirkheaton, near Hudders- 
field. 

He was baptized at the Parish Church of St. Mary's, 



122 YORKSHIRE P URITA NISM A ND EA RLY NONCONFORMITY. 

Bishop-Hill, York, January 17th, 1618 ; educated at 
Trinity College, Cambridge, B.A. 1637, M.A. 1640; and 
about 1646 succeeded at Kirkheaton Richard Sykes, who 
had refused to sign the Covenant, but was cleared from 
his delinquency by an ordinance, January 6th, 1647-8 
(Lords' Jour. IX. 641). Richardson signed the West 
Riding Ministers' Attestation in 1648 ; was " a godly and 
well affected minister " (Pari. Sur.). He purchased 
Lassell Hall at Kirkheaton in 1648 ; and after his ejection 
continued to preach in the Hall, using the staircase as 
a pulpit, so as to enable him to escape in case constables 
should come in to apprehend him for holding a con- 
venticle. He also acted as chaplain to Mr. William 
Cotton, Denby Grange, Worsley, an iron-master, of 
Denby, and a generous friend to several ejected ministers 
(see Spofford) ; and had licence to preach in his house as 
a Presbyterian (May 8th, 1672) ; also for his own house 
at Layton. 

Besides preaching on Lord's days he had a lecture at 
his house once a month, when several of his noncon- 
formist brethren attended. He was often visited by 
Heywood, and frequently preached at Sheffield, and 
Norton, Derbyshire. 

In 1687 he removed to Liverpool, where he became 
the founder of nonconformity. He first preached at 
Castle Hey in Harrington Street, and afterwards at 
Toxteth Park Chapel. He died December 5th, 1698, 
aged 80, and was buried at St. Nicholas' Church. He 
had a robust constitution which continued to old age. 
The style of his preaching was to the last very neat and 
accurate, but plain and taking. He was mighty in the 
Scriptures, being able on a sudden to analyse, ex- 
pound and improve any chapter he read in the pious 
families which he visited. In Yorkshire he was much 
followed. 

His wife Elizabeth died in 1668, and he married, in 
1682, for his second wife, Hephzibah, daughter of Edward 
Prime, ejected minister of Sheffield, who, after his death, 
became wife of Robert Fern, minister of Wirksworth. 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 123 

115. RICHARDSON, Edward, D.D. ( -1667), was 

ejected from the Collegiate Church at Ripon. 

This College was dissolved early in the Revolution, and 
the Dean, Sub-dean and Prebendaries ejected. Walker 
says they " held a Chapter, June, 1640, which is all the 
authority that I have for making the latter of them the 
particular persons who suffered at the Dissolution of the 
College." He enumerates Thomas Dod, D.D., Dean; 
Matthew Levett, M.A., Sub-dean; John Favour, First 
Prebend.; Rd. Marsh, D.D., second; Richard Moyles, 
third ; Thomas Astell, fourth ; and two others unknown ; 
and says "the Prebendaries were all of them beneficed 
also, but how any of them fared except Dr. Marsh at 
their several livings I know not." 

" One who called himself Dr. Richardson was 
appointed to preach in the Minster by the Parliament, 
though in all probability he was never in any Orders, 
Presbyterian or Episcopal " (Walker). Of Richardson's 
antecedents our information is very defective ; but it is 
not likely that he would have been appointed to or 
continued in this position without at least Presbyterian 
ordination. He signed the West Riding Ministers' 
Attestation in favour of Presbyterian government in 
1648, as " Edward Richardson, Minister of the Gospel 
at Rippon, D.D." He was described in the Parliamentary 
Survey (1650) as "a very able and painfull minister, 
who was settled there by order from the committee for 
plundered ministers; yet hath neither tithes nor other 
parochial dues belonging to him. Yet he had £200 by 
order of Parliament, but whether it had been duly paid 
to him we are not informed." 

In the following year (August 31st), he lost his wife, 
Dorcas, daughter of Julius Hering, a zealous Puritan 
minister and lecturer at St. Alkmund's, Shrewsbury. 
She is commemorated in a lengthy Latin inscription, 
now much defaced, in the south aisle of the choir at 
Ripon, which concluded with these verses : 

EYAAPKH2 Dorcas, mulier speciosa superna, 
Est et erit TAYKYAEPKH2 terq. quaterq. beata. 



i2 4 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM A ND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

If everlasting streams of love can dry, 
If humble patience, prudence, piety 
Can ever fade, then may blest Dorcas dy. 

He afterwards married a second wife, of the family of 
Allason or Allison of York. 

After the Restoration and the Act of Uniformity he 
felt greatly dissatisfied with the prevailing condition of 
things, and held conferences with others of similar 
sentiments at Knaresborough Spa and elsewhere. It 
was surmised that a widespread plot existed to " restore 
a Gospel ministry and magistracy." This plot is usually 
called The Farnley Wood Plot, because of the place 
where on the night of the 12th October, 1663 — as it was 
asserted by informers — the rebels were to assemble in 
force. As a matter of fact a few persons, misled by 
trepanners, did meet there ; and finding nothing stirring 
separated and returned to their homes, to be afterwards 
arrested. 

But some months before that date full information 
was in the hands of the Government concerning disaffected 
persons, and was made use of to inveigle as many as 
possible into the snare. Many were arrested before the 
supposed gathering, and it was made an occasion of 
inflicting upon them and others severe and unjust 
penalties. Great numbers were harassed, over 100 
arrested and sent to York Castle, twenty-two were hung, 
drawn, and quartered, and not a few died in prison. 

More than two months before the day appointed 
Richardson was arrested for intercourse with John Hilles, 
of Durham, sent to York and lodged in a private house 
of great security. But he and his sureties escaped. He 
left York on August 6th, was at Lynn on the 13th, and 
on the 19th fled to Holland. At first he resided at 
Rotterdam practising medicine ; but being vigilantly 
pursued by agents of the English Government the 
authorities there requested him to leave the city. On 
being asked whether they would deliver him up if 
demanded, they said " No," but they would not willingly 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 125 

be put to the necessity of refusing; and he then deemed 
it safest to leave the city, lest he should be taken captive 
and carried on board an English ship. 

Edmund Custis wrote to Secretary Bennet, March 
4th, 1664, " The bird is flown to Amsterdam, where he 
appears publicly and is printing two tracts on religious 
controversies " ; and he advised, March nth, that M Sir 
Roger Langley should search for his writings at his wife's 
lodgings at York, where she is a prisoner at her brother 
Allason's " ; also stating, March 18th, that he had spent 
some hours with him, but could persuade him to confess 
nothing except that he knew of a plot. In April, 1666, 
war having been declared against the Dutch, a procla- 
mation was issued recalling him and others who had 
remained beyond seas contrary to the former proclamation, 
and having treasonably served in the war against their 
native country to undergo their lawful trial under pain of 
being attainted of high treason. On August 16th, 1666, 
Custis sends a letter of Richardson's (who was evidently 
aware of his intention), expressing thanks for good news 
of his son, whom he believed cast away in his ship, and 
stating that "he was of no party but that of Jesus against 
wickedness ; desired the ruin of no man, especially not 
of his native country, nor king ; and concerns himself 
not in the war, and prays for the safety of the place and 
people where he enjoys his freedom, which few kings on 
earth were worthy to give ; greater things are on the 
wheel, and he hoped soon to be found in Mount Zion." 
As late as March 4th, 1667, warrants were issued for the 
arrest of several of the so-called Farnley Wood 
conspirators, among whom were Jeremy Marsden and 
Dr. Edward Richardson. 

But in that year or soon after he died. He had 
succeeded Mr. Newcomen as pastor of the English 
Church at Leyden, and was a popular preacher. He 
became very expert in the language of the country, 
and wrote a book entitled " Anglo-Belgica j or the 
English and Dutch Academy," printed at Amsterdam, 
1677. 



126 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

116. ROBINSON, John, was ejected from the Chapelry 

of Rastrick, in the parish of Halifax. 

Oliver Hey wood says of Rastrick : " After Mr. Kay 
(John Kaye, 1655, who conformed, and was minister first 
at Dewsbury and then at St. John's Church, Leeds), 
came some whom I have forgotten till Mr. Robinson, an 
old man, inclined to Antinomianism ; accounted an 
honest man ; turned out upon nonconformity in 1662 ; he 
died there not long ago, having taught school there, 
breeding two sons, scholars." (Diar. IV. 323.) A legacy 
left to Rastrick Chapel was paid to him March 4th, 1662. 

117. ROBINSON, Joseph ( -1663), was ejected from 

the Rectory of Cottingham, in the East Riding. 

After Samuel Winter became Provost of Dublin, 1650, 
he was succeeded by Christopher Nesse; who, on his 
removal to Leeds, was followed by Robinson, but the 
exact date of his coming is uncertain. The Parish 
Register affords no information on this point. In 1653 
(October 14th), Matthew Haggard was appointed 
registrar with the approval of David Hotham, a Justice 
of the Peace ; and his name was associated in 1656 with 
that of Arthur Noell. Haggard died in December, 1661, 
and about this time the handwriting of Robinson first 
appears, although he may have been minister some years 
previously. The Burial Register is headed, "Novissima 
Contextura Tabula Funeralis from 1661 per me Joseph 
Robinson, servant in the Gospel of Christ of the Parish 
of Cottingham, in the month of November." The first 
entry is August 16th, 1661, the last August 28th, 1662. 
The first entry in the Baptismal Register is April, 1661. 
The first entry in the Marriage Register, September 3rd, 
1661 ; the last June, 1662. Robinson was a man of great 
piety, but was clouded with melancholy, and died soon 
after his ejectment. 

A Congregational Chapel was not built till after the 
Act of Toleration. Its Register commences in 1692, and 
its first minister (1696) was Abraham Dawson, son of 
Joseph Dawson, ejected at Thornton, Bradford. 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 127 

118. ROOTE, Henry (1590-1669), was ejected from the 
Chapelry of Sowerby, in the parish of Halifax. 

He was educated at Magdalen College, Cambridge, 
and travelled much in his younger days. About 1632, 
the minister of Denton Chapel, in the parish of 
Manchester, " being banished thence by a suspension," 
the congregation had some thoughts of inviting Mr. 
Roote to take his place ; but John Angier, a native of 
Essex, was chosen, and Roote became minister at Gorton 
in the same parish, where he continued over ten years. 

In 1634 he baptized a daughter of Angier's,who became 
Heywood's first wife ; and in 1643 preached in Manchester 
Collegiate Church on the day of Mr. Angier's second 
marriage. While at Gorton he became acquainted with 
Samuel Eaton, of Dukinfield, who had returned from 
New England (1640), and sympathized with his 
Congregational principles. After Dr. Marsh left Halifax 
(1643), Roote was appointed preacher at the Parish 
Church there, and continued till March 28th, 1645, 
when he removed to Sowerby. He was the first to form 
a Congregational Church in the parish. To this, allusion 
is made by Edwards, the Presbyterian, who says : 

11 A minister in York writes a letter to a minister in London, 
dated January 29th, 1645-6 : ' Sects begun to grow fast in these 
northern parts, for want of a settlement in discipline. Mr. R. 
hath gathered an Independent congregation in Halifax Parish, 
and some others are about to do also. I could wish we were 
reduced into Presbyteries to prevent further mischief. 

" ' And for the north besides, many instances I could give you 
of Hull, Beverley, York, Halifax, &c, of Independent churches 
gathered there and of many Anabaptists and other sectaries in 
those places.'" ( M Gangraena," Part II., pp. 108, 123.) 

u Copy of a letter out of Yorkshire concerning an Independent 
church in that county. It states that the writer and others had 
interfered with Mr. Roote on the subject of choosing officers for 
the church and endeavoured to put off their choice till they had 
a conference with some godly ministers to ascertain the true way. 
Mr. Roote's answer was, that before anything was done they must 
have satisfaction for what wrongs they had sustained, provided 
they might do the like against our way. It was thought fit by 
the inhabitants of the place for that day to lock the chapel doors, 



128 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

to testify their not approving their way; and so it was done, 
which doth much incense them ; and the last Sabbath day they 
had the liberty of the Chapel wherein they began their election of 
Deacons."— February 9th, 1645-6. (" Gangraena," Part III.) 

He succeeded in organizing a Congregational Church, 
and among the members who joined it during the next 
few years were the following : 

Francis Priestley, 

Richard Bentley (father of Eli Bentley, the 
ejected minister at Halifax), 

John Greenwood (brother of Dr. Greenwood, 
vice-chancellor of Oxford), 

Josiah Stansfeld, of Bowood, 

Joshua Horton, J.P., 

Capt. John Hodgson, of Coley, and 

Robert Tillotson (father of the Archbishop). 
Young Tillotson was on very friendly terms with 
Henry Roote, and when a student at Clare Hall, 
Cambridge, wrote to him, December 6th, 1649,* seeking 
his advice as to taking the Engagement "to be faithful 
to the Government established, without King or House 
of Peers." In 1650 the Committee for compoundings 
settled £50 per annum of the unpropriated tithes of 
Duckmanton in the county of Derby to the use and for 
" the maintenance of Mr. Henry Roote, now minister of 
the chapel at Sowerby, and his successors there for 
ever." 

In 1654 Mr. Roote was appointed an assistant 
commissioner for ejecting ignorant and scandalous 
ministers in the West Riding. When Robert Con- 
stantine was outed from Oldham for refusing the 
Engagement, and John Lake (a Halifax man, afterwards 
Bishop of Chichester) was appointed, first as an 
occasional preacher and then under an order of the 
Committee for plundered ministers, the partisans of 
Constantine brought charges of inadequacy against 
him. Henry Roote wrote the following letter to Col. 
Worsley and Mr. Wiggan, at St. James's, Westminster : 

* The letter is given at length by Palmer. 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 129 

"Honoured Friends, 

I would intreate you to contribute your best assistance to 
your neighbours at Ouldham for the removal of Mr. Lake, minister 
there. I know he hath been a grand enemie to the Parliament, 
and in armes in former times. Hee ever when he lived with us* 
sided and kept company with the basest and most malignant. 
He was an enemie to the poure of religion. All this is for former 
times. I think those that solicite against him can say more for 
his miscarriage in latter times, which if they doe I pray you do 
your utmost to clear the coast of him. I have no more but my 
respects to you and the rest of your Godly officers, and doe 
subscribe myself yours in all Christian service. 

Sorbie, August 9, 1652. Henry Roote." 

He continued in intimate association with his 
friends in Lancashire, and appended his name to the 
Propositions for accommodation between Presbyterians 
and Independents agreed upon at Manchester, July 13th, 
1659 ; the other Independents being : 
Samuel Eaton, 
Thomas Smallwood, 
Michael Bristoe, 

John Jollie (brother of Thomas Jollie, of Altham), 
Jeremy Marsden, 
Robert Birch (Manchester). 
(Halley : 2/3, 2/90, 99 ; Hibbert's " History of the 
Collegiate Church, Manchester.") 

When the Presbyterian rising under Sir George Booth 
(afterwards created Lord Delamere) was put down by 
the energy of General Lambert, and Colonel Lilburn 
arrived in Manchester and took command of the 
Republican army, Roote preached to the soldiers in the 
Collegiate Church, Sunday, August 21st, 1659. 

On July 17th, 1662, just before the Act of Uniformity 
came into operation, a conference was held at Joshua 
Horton's between Roote and other Congregationalists, 
viz. : 

Capt. Pickeringe (of Tingley), Capt. Hodgson, 
Christopher Marshall (Woodchurch), Briscoe, Eaton, 
Roote, " all Phanatique Ministers " ; John Greenwood, 

* Lake had been at Halifax from July 26th, 1647, to September, 1648. 
K 



1 30 YORKSHIRE P URITA NISM A ND EA RL Y NONCONFORMITY, 

of Redbrinke, John Lume, of Westercroft, Josias 
Stansfeld. 

Of this meeting information was sent to the Secretary 
of State and a Commission of Inquiry appointed ; but 
nothing could be proved against the persons mentioned. 

Mr. Roote preached in the chapel for above half a 
year after Bartholomew's Day, and was then treated 
with great severity. 

11 He was forcibly taken out of his own house by virtue of a 
mittimus upon a significavit, and three bailiffs who were employed 
on this occasion broke the inner door of a room where he was 
sitting and hurried him away in a manner unsuitable to his age 
and weakness. They would not suffer him so much as to take his 
coat, his staff, or even his money he had by him to defray his 
expenses. They treated him in various other respects with 
rudeness and cruelty. He was a prisoner in York Castle for three 
months. And some time after he had been released he was 
committed a second time and continued there for three months 
longer. But the Justices having discovered the commitment to 
have been illegal, he was discharged. 

" Yet he was a third time sent to the same prison by Sir John 
Armitage, without any cause being assigned. He was kept close 
prisoner in a small room for a considerable time ; his wife was not 
permitted to visit him nor even to come into the Castle." (" Con- 
formists' Fourth Plea for the Nonconformists.") 

The members of his church now met in private houses, 
as they had opportunity ; and notwithstanding his 
advanced age he preached at various places in the 
neighbourhood. On a day of thanksgiving, May 21st, 
1668, Heywood says : " We had the assistance of old 
Mr. Roote, Mr. Dawson and a great number of 
Christians; it was a very sweet day, my heart was 
much affected, we sung Psalms, feared nothing." 

But his labours were now nearly at an end. He died 
in the following year, October 20th, 1669, aged nearly 
80, and was interred at Sowerby " with much 
solemnity." Giving an account some years subsequently 
of conforming members in the parish of Halifax, 
Heywood states : " Mr. Paul Bairstow is there (at 
Lightcliffe) now ; who was a schoolmaster at Sowerby, 
and made a jeering copy of verses upon old Mr. Roote, 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 131 

and caused a scholar to cast them upon his coffin when 
he was a putting into the grave ; they fell down at my 
feet, wherein there was a horrid abuse of the old man ; 
though his father, Michael Bairstew, was one of Mr. 
Roote's church at Sowerby." 

The widow of Henry Roote and other members of 
his " gathered society " united with the society of 
Northowram (which was regarded as Presbyterian, but 
really differed little from a Congregational society) in 
observing the Lord's Supper (1673) ; and they " fully 
acquiesced," Hey wood says, " in my fidelity as to the 
admission of our church members." Joshua Horton 
also built a meeting-house at Quarry Hill, Sowerby, 
and maintained a lecture there while the licences were 
in force, about three years (1672-5). After that, 
meetings were held at the house of Samuel Hopkinson, 
and elsewhere ; but the congregation was scattered, 
many going to Warley and other places, and a chapel 
was not built till some years later. 

119. ROOTE, Timothy (1635-1689), was ejected from the 
Chapelry of Sowerby Bridge, in the parish of Halifax. 

He was son of Henry Roote, minister at Sowerby, and 
born at Gorton, near Manchester. He was educated at 
Sowerby under Thomas Preston, schoolmaster ; admitted 
to St. John's College, Cambridge ; sizar, tutor and surety 
Mr. Grandorge, March 13th, 1653-4, aet » x 8. At Sowerby 
Bridge the minister was Daniel Bentley (brother of Eli), 
from 1655 to his death early in 1660, when he was 
succeeded by Timothy Roote. 

After his ejection he proved himself a diligent preacher, 
and was a great sufferer for his nonconformity. 

On August 19th, 1665, the pursuivants took him and 
others to carry them to York before the Duke of Buck- 
ingham. He was obliged to leave his habitation and his 
family, with a farm he occupied, to his great loss. 

In 1666 he was living with his wife's father, Robert 
Binns, of Slaithwaite. When he was in Lancashire 
among some relatives he was invited to preach in a 



132 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

chapel there, — and in the time of Divine service a certain 
doctor came and disturbed him, exhibiting an indict- 
ment against him for preaching ; but the doctor having 
made a mistake respecting his proper name, he was 
dismissed. Five months after he was invited to preach 
at the same chapel again, and it being vacant he com- 
plied. For this he was indicted and put to a great deal 
of trouble and expense. 

In August, 1670, he was invited to preach at Shadwell 
Chapel, in the parish of Thorner, near Leeds, which was 
vacant ; and while he was singing a Psalm Lord Savile 
came with twenty-four troopers and some bailiffs. Mr. 
Roote was dragged out of the pulpit into the chapel yard, 
where his life was endangered by the trampling of the 
horses. Mr. Roote desired them to keep off their horses, 
saying, " I am in your hands and ye are in God's 
hands." Lord Savile said, " In God's hands ! Nay, thou 
art in the devil's hands." 

They searched his pockets, and finding a receipt in 
which his name was inserted they made a mittimus to 
carry him to York gaol; where he was kept close 
prisoner. The gaoler told him except he would give him 
£20 he should be loaded with double irons and confined 
among the felons in the low gaol. After fourteen days' 
confinement in an upper room he was brought forth and 
double irons were put upon him, heavier than those of 
the common thieves, whose fellow-prisoner he was now 
to be. The gaoler locked the inner door in the day-time, 
and would not permit him the liberty allowed to the 
felons of taking air in the Castle yard. Mr. Roote pro- 
cured a bed, which the gaoler would not suffer him to 
set up, but compelled him to lie upon straw. On the 
Lord's Day he would have preached to the prisoners ; 
but while he was at prayer an order was brought from 
the head gaoler requiring him to desist. When he had 
continued for some time in this confinement, two Justices 
in the west sent a certificate for him, upon which he was 
released, though not without giving bond for his appear- 
ance at the next sessions. He accordingly appeared, but 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 133 

no indictment being found against him he was finally 
discharged. These troubles were attended with great 
expense, and were afflictive and even hazardous to his 
wife, who about this time lay in of her fourth child 
<" Conformists' Plea "). 

Heywood gives a fuller account of his arrest at Shad- 
well, stating that Lord Savile was accompanied by Mr. 
Copley, Mr. Hammond and forty of Lord Freshwell's 
troopers from York, who conveyed him to York and put 
him in the Castle ; also took 400 or 500 names of people, 
seized on their horses, made them pay 5s. a-piece before 
they had them back. This was done August 28th, 1670. 
He was kept close prisoner, put into the low gaol among 
twelve thieves, had double irons laid on him for four 
days and nights, but upon Capt. Hodgson's importunity 
with Mr. Copley he was released. 

On his release he kept a day of thanksgiving with 
Heywood at " Slaughthwaite," October 4th, 1670. 

Under the Declaration of Indulgence he had licence to 
preach at the house of Samuel Goodall, at Bramley, near 
Leeds (May 29th, 1672) ; the house of Samuel Ellison 
there being also licensed at the same time. 

In 1673 he was one of the four regular preachers at 
the meeting-house at Sowerby, built by Justice Horton, 
and received a small allowance for his services. 

In 1676 we find him preaching at Flanshaw ; in 1677 
at Flanshaw ; and in 1678 he seems to have been living 
at Wakefield, as Heywood called upon him there in 
1679. 

Then came a period of great persecution, during which 
he still held on to his principles ; but at length growing 
weary and hopeless of the conflict and tempted by the 
offer of a parish living, he conformed and obtained the 
vicarage of Howden in the East Riding. Mr. Triggott, 
Mr. Heywood, Mr. Naylor, and others thought his com- 
plying after such sufferings so extraordinary that they 
wanted to know whether he saw with clearer eyes than they, 
and desired that he would give them an account of the 
reason of his proceeding ; but he declined giving them 



134 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

any satisfaction. He brought up his son John, in order 
to the fitting him for the ministry, and he was nineteen 
when his father conformed. He went along with him to 
his parsonage at Howden, in this county, and heard him 
read the Common Prayer with his surplice on, and came 
home and told his mother of it. Both mother and son 
were so troubled at it that both of them died shortly after 
within a little time of one another. (Calamy.) 

Mrs. Roote, of Wakefield, died of a fever; buried there 
July 16th, 1686. Her eldest son died about a fortnight 
before. " Mr. Timothy Root died at Howden of a 
dropsie, along with a wasting away, not been able to 
preach, June 24th, 1689, aged 54." (Northowram Register.) 
A tombstone in commemoration of him was erected in 
Thoresby's time ; but it has now disappeared. 

120. RYTHER, John (1632-1681), was ejected at Froding- 
ham, Lincolnshire, silenced at North Fevriby, and 
preached at Horton, near Bradford. 

He was the son of a noted Quaker at York ; educated 
at Leeds Grammar School and at Sidney Sussex College, 
Cambridge. After his ejection at Frodingham, Lincoln- 
shire, at the Restoration he came to reside at NorthFerriby, 
near Brough, on the Humber, where he was silenced by 
the Act of Uniformity. He appears to have held meetings 
in a private house there, and preached his farewell sermon 
on Psalm cxxxvii., 1, " By the rivers of Babylon," etc. 
He had a very particular way of adapting his discourses 
to remarkable seasons and circumstances, and preached 
numerous sermons occasioned by the great plague and 
fire of London (1665-6), showing his sympathy with the 
sufferers. 

For holding conventicles he was arrested and imr 
prisoned in York Castle, at one time for six months, and 
at another time for fifteen months. The Five Mile Act 
forced him from his home amidst circumstances of 
peculiar hardship. In 1668 he became pastor of the 
Congregational Church in Bradford-dale (which had been 
formed about 1655). He preached at Coley Hall, 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 135 

February 21st, 1668, and with Heywood at York in the 
following August (27th). But he continued only about a 
year, and then sought an asylum in London. He built a 
meeting - house in Broad Street, Wapping, where he 
preached many sermons to sailors, and was known as 
" the Seaman's Preacher." He continued preaching to 
the last with great acceptance and success, though not 
without trouble. Warrants were often issued against 
him, but he was never apprehended, though the officers 
and their attendants were many times vexatious to his 
wife. They came once and again to search for him, even 
at midnight ; and not finding him they rifled his study. 
One time when he was preaching in his study the officers 
came to seize him ; but the sailors, of whom he usually 
had a good number in his auditory, made a lane for him 
which he passed through and escaped. He was a man 
of strict piety and a very affecting preacher, whom God 
wonderfully prospered in his work. He published several 
works, of which the following were the chief : 

1. " A Plat for Mariners," 1672. 

2. Several Sermons on Prov. viii. 17, 1673. 

3. A Funeral Sermon for Mr. James Janeway, 1674. 

4. "A Discourse on making a Mock at Sin," 1677. 

5. " A Looking-Glass for the Wise and Foolish." 

6. "The Best Friend standing at the Door," 1678. 

7. " The Hue and Cry of Conscience," 1680. 

8. " Sea Dangers and Deliverances Improved." 

He died about 1681. His son, of the same name as 
himself, was a chaplain on merchant ships trading to 
both the Indies, and ultimately became (1689) minister of 
the Congregational Church at Bridlesmith Gate, after- 
wards Castle Gate, Nottingham. 

121. SALE, James, M.A. (1619-1679), was ejected from the 
Lectureship of St. John's Church, Leeds, in 1662. 

He was son of James Sale, of Pudsey, near Leeds, 
where he was born ; baptized at Calverley, October 23rd, 
1619 ; educated at Cambridge ; spent some time with 
Edward Reyner, M.A., a native of Morley, and eminent 



136 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 



Puritan preacher at St. Peter's and the Minster, Lincoln 
(who died before the Act of Uniformity was passed) ; and 
was afterwards minister at Thornton chapel, Lincolnshire, 
whence he came to be assistant of Robert Todd, at St. 
John's, Leeds, in 1647. He was a great friend of 
Elkanah Wales, of Pudsey ; and although his name is 
not found among the subscribers to the West Riding 
Ministers' Attestation in 1648, he took an active part in 
the voluntary associations of Presbyterian ministers for 
ordination and other purposes ; and in 165 1 (August 
20th) Cromwell complained at Doncaster of a " meeting 
of above twenty members at or about Leeds, about some 
consultations against the present Government, and in 
special to set up the old Cavalier Fast which the late 
King had set up. Mr. Wales and Mr. Sales being to 
preach." (Letter of Mr. John Shaw, of Hull.) 

After his ejection he lived in his own house at Green 
Top, at Pudsey, in one of the rooms of which were lately 
the initials I.B.S., 1651. Under the Declaration of 
Indulgence he had licence as a Presbyterian teacher in 
his own house at Pudsey (May 15th, 1672) ; also at a 
house called Free School House, at Leeds town-end ; and 
at the house of James Moxon, Leeds (June 10th). He 
was a companion and comfort to old Mr. Wales, whom 
he served as a son in the Gospel. He was a learned and 
holy man, of fine parts, and an excellent preacher. 
Heywood visited him when struck with palsy, August 
22nd, 1678 ; and^notes that he was " struck with the 
third fit April 15th, died April 17th, 1679, aged 60, and 
buried at Calverley ; a worthy choice minister." His 
wife Beatrice was daughter of Richard Richardson, of 
North Bierley, near Bradford ; she died January 1st, 
1701, aged 79. One of his daughters was married to 
Thomas Sharp, M.A., of Little Horton, and another to 
Richard Hutton, of Pudsey (second son of Richard 
Hutton, of Poppleton, and the Hon. Dorothy Fairfax), 
who was father-in-law to Madame Hutton, who left a 
valuable endowment to the ministers of several noncon- 
formist churches in the neighbourhood. 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 137 

Under the Toleration Act a meeting was certified at 
the house of Mrs. Sale, widow, and at a barn ; and a new 
chapel was built in 1708. 

122. SAMPSON (Christian name unknown). According 

to Morrice was ejected from the Chapelry of Rawcliff, 
in the parish of Snaith, and afterwards conformed. 

He probably replaced William Cornwall, who was 
described as "scandalous" (Pari. Sur.). 

123. SCARGILL (Christian name unknown). Was ejected 

from the Chapelry of Chapelthorp, in the parish of 
Sandal Magna, near Wakefield, and afterwards 
conformed. 

124. SCURR, Leonard, M.A. ( -1680), was silenced at 

Beeston, near Leeds. 

He was born at Pontefract, where he had a good 
estate; educated at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, 
A.M. 1652; and was described as "a constant godly 
preacher" at Beeston (Pari. Sur.). Mr. Cudworth 
appears to have been here at one time. 

Among the Presentations in the MSS. at Lambeth we 
find the following : 

"To the Commissioners for approbation of Public Preachers: 
I, Leonard Scure, of Beeston, gentleman, do nominate Mr. James 
Rigby* to preach the Gospel at the Chapel of Beeston in Yorkshire 
and desire your approbation of him, for receiving of an augmentation 
grant to the said Chapel. Witness my hand and seal the first of 
April, 1659, Leon. Scure." 

Also Admissions : 

"James Rigby, 8 April, 1659, to the Chapel of Beeston, per 
Leonard Scurre, gentleman, the patron, and consent from Rd. 
Fleethood, Hen. Rigby and several others." 

Hey wood says (Diar. II. 296) that " he was a good 
scholar, of singular fine parts, of notable ingenuity, mild 
temper, not easy provoked ; had an estate of £300 a 
year, but made most of it away by suits at law." He 

*Jas, Rigby was Vicar of Rotherham after Clayton. 



138 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

was arrested in 1663 on account of being suspected of 
implication in the Farnley Wood Plot ; and information 
(evidently exaggerated and malicious) was given that 
" Mr. Scurr, of Leeds, worth £700 a year, relieved and 
maintained the plot prisoners in York gaol so well that 
they never lived better ; and by his subtlety and means 
they were all, including himself, released " (Cal. St. 
Pap., 1664). 

In 1664 Thomas Burwell, Doctor of Laws, was 
charged at the York Assizes with illegally citing and 
excommunicating Leonard Scurr ; and in July, 1665, 
Richard Sykes, of Hunslet, gentleman, Robert Batt, of 
Farnley, gentleman, and others, were charged at the 
Assizes with violently entering upon a certain tenement 
belonging to Leonard Scurr, and bound over to keep the 
peace. 

Thirteen months after (1666) the same parties appeared 
at the Assizes with charges and counter charges of riot 
and assault (York Depositions). 

" He had extraordinary skill in law," says Heywood; 
"this occasioned his confidence in suits, which ruined 
him, brought him into debt, straits, outed him at 
Beeston Hill. He was retired to a little poor thatcht 
house, wherein he preached of late to those that came to 
him. The last suit he had was with some colliers, whom 
he bound to work for him so long as water ran under 
Leeds Bridge ; they blow off, he sued them " ; and soon 
afterwards occurred an appalling tragedy that made a 
great sensation. 

On January 22nd, 1680, the house in which he lived 
with his mother and maid-servant was found completely 
burnt, together with its occupants, whose remains 
amidst the ashes exhibited signs of violent treatment. 
But nothing was discovered concerning the perpetrators 
of the deed until eighteen months afterwards, when a 
woman who had been a servant of Mrs. Scurr met in 
Ireland another woman wearing a garment which she 
felt persuaded belonged to her old mistress, and gave 
information that led to the arrest of the husband of the 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 139 

woman and another collier. These two colliers were 
convicted and hanged on Woodhouse Moor.* 

Some statements of Calamy concerning Leonard Scurr 
are not well substantiated. " He was somewhat con- 
tentious as to law suits," says Thoresby, " but otherwise 
no ill man that ever I could learn ; though some, from 
the distinguishing calamity which befell him, have been 
led to suspect some enormous guilt." 

125. SHARP, Thomas, M.A. (1634-1693), was ejected from 
the Rectory of Adel, near Leeds, in 1660. 

He was eldest son of John Sharp, of Little Horton, 
Bradford, a noted Parliamentarian, and was born there 
October 30th, 1634. He was educated at Bradford 
Grammar School, and at Clare Hall, Cambridge (1649), 
where he was under the tuition of his uncle, David 
Clarkson, B.D., and afterwards of John Tillotson, 
subsequently Archbishop of Canterbury. He was very 
studious, and having excellent natural parts, cultivated 
by great advantages and unusual industry, he became a 
universal scholar, a solid logician and great linguist, a 
fluent orator, a profound philosopher, and a very skilful 
mathematician. 

He was episcopally ordained early in 1660, and was 
for a short time curate at Peterborough. On the death 
of his uncle, William Clarkson, M.A., of Adel (which 
benefice Dr. Hitch had been compelled to relinquish in 
pursuance of the ordinance against pluralities), he was 
presented to the living by the patron, Henry Arthington. 
But after the Restoration Dr. Hitch claimed the living ; 
and Sharp was the more willing to quit it, foreseeing the 
storm coming. 

He then returned to his father's house at Horton 
Hall, and followed his studies very closely, preaching 
occasionally. 

* Thoresby says only one of them. Palmer adds that " the other was 
reprieved in hope of a further discovery, which he could never be brought 
to make." 



i 4 o YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY, 

In 1668 he married a daughter of Mr. Bagnall, who 
gave birth to a daughter, both mother and child dying 
speedily afterwards. He married for his second wife 
(1673) Faith, daughter of James Sale, of Pudsey. 

Having spent some time at Reading, he finally, on the 
death of his father, fixed his residence at the Hall, and 
had licence as a Presbyterian to preach in his own house 
at Horton (May 15th, 1672) ; also for the Free School, 
Leeds. He rebuilt the Hall in 1676, and whilst 
continuing to make it his home he preached regularly 
at Morley for about two years, 1676-7, when, on the 
removal of Richard Stretton from Mill Hill Chapel, 
Leeds, he became his successor, and ministered there 
with much acceptance and success until his decease. 

He had a house at Leeds, as well as one at Little 
Horton, and the latter, like the former, was registered 
under the Toleration Act as a meeting-place for 
Protestant Dissenters. He died of pleurisy at Leeds, 
August 27th, 1693, aged 59. Thoresby speaks of him 
as "that holy, angelical man," and as "a most 
instructive, moving, learned, yet constant preacher," 
and gives an affecting account of his last hours (Diar., 
I. 60, 238). 

He was every way a great man, and yet clothed with 
humility. He was very laborious in his work, full of self- 
denial, exceedingly temperate, mortified to all earthly 
enjoyments, and of a peaceable catholic spirit, rather for 
composing differences than espousing a party. He was 
excellent in prayer and accurate, and all his perform- 
ances were exceedingly polite and scholarlike. One Mr. 
Smith, having extravagantly commended the Book of 
Common Prayer, as if it had been compiled by a Synod 
of Angels, Mr. Sharp drew up a short account of it, 
stating that " it is defective in necessaries, redundant in 
superfluities, dangerous in some things, disputable in 
many, disorderly in all," and proceeded to give instances 
in each respect, which are reproduced by Calamy 
(" Account, &c," p. 814). 

He was the brother of Abraham Sharp, of Bradford, 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 141 

the eminent mathematician and astronomer, and cousin 
of John Sharp (1644-17 13), Archbishop of York. 

126. SHAW, John, M.A. (1608-1672), was ejected from 
Trinity Church, Hull. 

He was born at Sicke or Syke House, in the Chapelry 
of Bradfield, in the parish of Ecclesfield, near Sheffield, 
June 13th, 1608 ; and inherited that estate on the death 
of his father. He was admitted pensioner to Christ's 
College, Cambridge, 1622 ; M.A. 1630. He was 
appointed lecturer at Brampton, Chesterfield, 1631 ; 
minister at Chumleigh, Devon, 1633 ; and lecturer at 
All-hallows on the Pavement, York, 1636, when the vicar 
was Henry Ayscough. After preaching his first sermon 
at York, Archbishop Neile, who declared himself an 
enemy of the Puritans, sent for him and dealt somewhat 
roughly with him ; but hearing that he was chaplain to 
the Earl of Pembroke,' 1 ' he was somewhat softened. 
However, he said that he heard he was a rich man, and 
was brought in by Vaux (the Lord Mayor) to head the 
Puritans against him; "but," said he, "I will break 
Vaux and the whole Puritan party." Neile died just 
before the war began. 

He was instituted to the vicarage of Rotherham on 
presentation by the Earl of Pembroke, April 17th, 1639. 
He accompanied the Earl to Berwick ; and was chaplain 
to Hy. Rich., Earl of Holland, 1641. On the breaking 
out of the war he fled by night to Hull, but Sir John 
Hotham, the governor, would not suffer him to remain. 
He then went to Beverley, and on the way back to 
Rotherham he preached before Lord Fairfax and his 
army at Selb.y. 

On the taking of Rotherham, May 4th, 1643, he hid 
himself in the steeple and " miraculously " escaped ; 
came to Manchester, and preached for some time at 



* Philip Herbert, Earl of Montgomery and fourth Earl of Pembroke. 
He was Lord Chamberlain under Charles I. ; but took the side of the 
Parliament in the Civil War; was Chancellor of the University of Oxford, 
1648, and one of the Council of State after the execution of the King. 



142 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

Lymm, in Cheshire, and in neglected districts about 
Cartmel. 

After the surrender of York, he preached at the 
Minster, September ist, 1644, and at the taking of the 
Covenant there, September 20th. He was chosen 
chaplain to the Committee appointed for the better 
ordering of the affairs of the country and advising Lord 
Fairfax. He was also chosen Secretary to the Committee 
for removing ignorant and scandalous ministers, which 
sat weekly in the Chapter House; but, as he declares, 
he burnt all the papers connected therewith after the 
Restoration. 

Fairfax gave him the living of Scrayingham, seven 
miles from York ; and after ministering there awhile he 
came to Hull as vicar of St. Mary's, in the place of John 
Boatman, a Royalist. On the removal of Mr. Wayte, he 
was elected lecturer at Trinity; and after the removal of 
Mr. Styles from Hessle-cum-Hull, for refusing the 
Engagement, he was appointed Master of the Charter 
House. Here, he says, he continued seventeen years 
together, preaching every Wednesday and Sunday, and 
six or seven times a week besides, at both churches, and 
to the soldiers at the Castle. 

He had no little opposition when he attempted to set 
up Presbyterian discipline ; and he was on no very 
amicable terms with John Canne, the notable Separatist, 
who was chaplain to the garrison, and held service in 
Trinity Church, one portion thereof being walled in for 
this purpose. During the Protectorate he was sometimes 
called to preach before Cromwell at Whitehall and 
Hampton Court, and on many public occasions. And he 
received from the Council of State an augmentation of 
£ 100 per annum. 

On the Restoration of Charles II. he was appointed 
King's Chaplain (July 25th, 1660), and was present at 
the coronation. But soon afterwards a Royal order was 
issued (June ist, 1661) to remove three aldermen from 
their places, and inhibit Mr. Shaw from preaching in 
Trinity Church. He continued at the Charter House 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 143 

for a short time longer; and on June 20th, 1662, he 
removed to Rotherham, where he was silenced by the 
Act of Uniformity. 

He preached at his own house one part of the day, as 
Mr. Luke Clayton, the nonconforming vicar, did the 
other. When staying at the house of Mr. Stamforth, his 
son-in-law, at Firbeck, November 7th, 1663, he was 
watched and informed against by Francis Mountenay, 
but left before the warrant could be served upon him. 
He died April 19th, 1672, and was buried in Rotherham 
Church, where a brass plate on his grave bore the 
following inscription (in Latin) : 

"John Shaw, A.M., educated at Christ's College, Cambridge, at 
one time Vicar of this Church ; ever esteemed by the devout and 
learned among the chief divines on account of his eminent erudi- 
tion, piety and labour in word and doctrine in his sacred calling : 
alike a Barnabas and a Boanerges. Translated to the Heavenly 
Mansions, April 19, 1672, aged 65." 

He left an autobiographical manuscript, which has 
been several times printed under the title of " Memoirs 
of Mr. John Shaw " : (i) Edited by John Broadley, Hull, 
1824; ( 2 ) Yorkshire Diaries, edited by Canon Raine, 
Surtees Soc, 1875 ; (3) edited by J. R. Boyle, 1882. 

127. SHAW, Joseph ( -1691), was ejected from the 
Chapelry of Worsborough, in the parish of Darfield. 

He succeeded Hugh Everard, who removed to Hickle- 
ton, where he was silenced. After his ejectment he was 
tutor to Mr. Bosville's* sons, whom he fitted for the 
University. He had licence to teach as a Presbyterian 
in the house of William Rokebv, of Skellow, and 



* Godfrey Bosville, of Gunthwaite, in the parish of Penistone, was 
Colonel of a Regiment of Foot in the Parliamentary army ; one of the 
Committee for removing scandalous ministers ; M.P., died 1658. His son 
William was also an officer in the Parliamentary army, died in 1662, 
leaving two sons. The sister of the last named married George James 
Sedaseue. (Hey wood dined at Gunthwaite with Major Sedascue in 1666.) 
He was a Bohemian and supporter of the Elector Palatine, on whose 
defeat he fled to England and became an officer in the Parliamentary 
army ; died at Heath Hall, Wakefield, 1688. 



i 4 4 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

Ackworth Park, brother of Sir Thomas Rokeby, Judge 
(December gth, 1672) ; the same house being certified as 
a meeting-place for Protestant Dissenters under the 
Toleration Act by Jo. Pigot. He subsequently preached 
at a place about six miles west of Hull, where he fell 
into a consumption ; and was buried at Worsborough, 
September 3rd, 1691. He was a pious man and a good 
scholar. 

128. SHEMHOLD (Christian name unknown), was ejected 

from the Vicarage of Ostnotherley, nine miles from 
Northallerton. [J. Horsfall Turner calls him Shem- 
bold.] 

Nothing further is known concerning him. The 
Parish Register does not begin till 1696. 

The site of the Carthusian Priory of Mount Grace, 
near Osmotherley, belonged to Thomas Lascelles, a 
Parliamentarian, member of the Long Parliament and 
magistrate under the Protectorate. He constructed a 
mansion out of a portion of the ruined Priory, and his 
initials appear over the doorway, T.L., 1654. Being 
informed against as implicated in the so-called Farnley 
Wood Plot in 1663, he was imprisoned at York Castle, 
where he lingered until his death ; and under the 
Declaration of Indulgence Mrs. Lascelles, his widow, had 
licence for a Presbyterian meeting at her house at Mount 
Grace (December 23rd, 1672). 

129. SHERBORNE, Robert, M.A. ( -1671), was ejected 

from the Vicarage of Cawood. 

He was son of Robert Sherborne, vicar of Brayton, 
near Selby, " a preaching minister " (Pari. Sur.) ; and as 
his birth was premature so were his after improvements, 
for he was sooner a man, a Christian, and a scholar than 
most others. He was educated at Coxwold Free School 
(founded by Sir John Hart, Knt., Aid. of London), 
under Mr. Smelt ; and admitted at fourteen years of age 
to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he had 
Richard Perrot as his tutor. He afterwards lived for 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 145 

some time with Mr. Maskill, of Sherborne, by whom he 
was assisted in Hebrew, and at the same time he 
advanced in other studies. His first ministerial service 
was at Kellington, after the removal of William Hall, 
the vicar, "of evil conversation and notoriously 
scandalous" (Pari. Sur.). He then removed to Cawood, 
in 1659, where he was for three years a pious and 
faithful minister, joining with the neighbouring ministers 
in their public lectures and private exercises. He found 
so much sweetness in Divine ordinances himself that he 
was thence led earnestly to press a constant attendance 
on others. He was wont to persuade even those to 
attend who objected their deafness; and he would 
encourage them to it by an instance of a very good man, 
one of his parishioners at Kellington, who, being stark 
deaf, yet attended constantly when he preached, for he 
thought he enjoyed more communion with God and had 
more comfort then than at other times. " For such to 
be present is to own God's public worship as well as 
they can, is to reproach the sloth and neglect of those 
who might wait there to better purpose and yet are 
willingly absent. Their reverent deportment under the 
public ministry, who only can see and meditate, may be 
a good example to trifling attendants, etc." 

At the passing of the Act of Uniformity his father 
conformed and kept his living at Brayton ; and the son 
went and lived with him, and was by connivance 
assistant to him. The father read the prayers, adminis- 
tered the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, 
" according to the rites and ceremonies of the Church of 
England," and preached now and then ; but the son was 
the more constant preacher, he was generally beloved by 
the people, and his labours were greatly successful. 
There were no informations against him ; and the Arch- 
bishop's connivance engaged the hearts of many good 
people to pray for him. He held on thus for several 
years; but his brittle constitution not bearing hard 
labour, with that activity of spirit which he discovered 
in all he did, he sunk under the burden, fell into a 



146 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

consumption and pined away in six or eight weeks time, 
anno 1670 or 1671. 

The loss of him was much lamented in all those parts. 
His funeral sermon was preached by Rev. Ralph Ward, 
of York, in Brayton Church. 

130. SINCLEARE, Henock, was ejected from the Rectory 

of Slingsby, in the North Riding. 

He signed a certificate to Laurence Pears on his 
presentation by Lord Fairfax to Helmsley, July 19th, 
1658, along with William Lucke, of Kirkby Moorside, 
and others. He had the character of a godly man and a 
good preacher. 

131. SMALLWOOD, Thomas (1617-1667), was ejected 

from the Vicarage of Batley. 

He was son of William Smallwood, of Sproston, 
Cheshire ; educated at St. Mary's Hall, Oxford; matricu- 
lated December 13th, 1633, aet. 16 : Chaplain to Lord 
Fairfax, and afterwards to General Lambert. " It is said 
of him that he possessed an uncommon degree of muscular 
strength, and when in the army he would sometimes 
outbrave the soldiers, being able to take up, at arm's 
length, three pikes tied together, which requires a 
greater strength than can be supposed without trial M 
(Heywood). 

Being a " moderate Congregationalist," he joined the 
Congregational Church at Woodchurch, under the 
pastorate of Christopher Marshall, in 1653. About the 
same time he was appointed by the Committee for 
plundered ministers to the living of Batley, in the place 
of Roger Audsley, M.A., sequestered ; and continued 
there until the Restoration, when the former vicar 
returned. In 1654 he was appointed an assistant com- 
missioner for ejecting ignorant and scandalous ministers 
in the West Riding; and in 1657 one of the visitors of 
the proposed University for Durham. In 1656 an 
augmentation of £46 13s. 4d. per annum for his 
maintenance was approved. He signed, along with 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 147 

Henry Roote, the Heads of Agreement at Manchester, 
in 1659. 

On his removal from Batley he preached in various 
places. In 1661 he was indicted at York for saying in a 
sermon at Chapel-le-Brears (Southowram, Halifax), with 
reference to the prospect of Roman Catholic Supremacy, 
" The Whore of Babylon is rising and setting up " 
(York Depositions). When the Act of Uniformity came 
into force he was preacher at Idle Chapel, in the parish 
of Calverley, near Bradford. On the Five Mile Act (1665), 
he went to reside with Joshua Kirby at Flanshaw Hall, 
near Wakefield, where he died November 24th, 1667, 
aged 50. 

He was of a noble, valiant, active spirit. His great 
delight and excellency lay in preaching for the conviction 
and awakening of sinners, in which God wonderfully 
prospered him. A small manuscript treatise of his has 
been preserved, entitled " Nonconformity, a Christian's 
Duty, or a Testimony against compliance with that way 
of worship, which is imposed and generally practised in 
England's Parochial Assemblies," and dedicated to "The 
Church of Christ near Bradford," by " Your Brother 
and Companion in Tribulation and in the Kingdom and 
patience of Jesus Christ, T.S." This church was 
doubtless " the Church of Christ in Bradford-dale," 
which had been formed about the year 1655 (" Yorks 
County Magazine," 1891). According to the TopclifTe 
(Woodchurch) Register, he had one daughter, baptized 
October 14th, 1657, and another October 28th, 1659 ; 
and his wife Elizabeth was buried October 26th, 1662. 
A Samuel Smallwood was buried at Horbury, July 26th, 
1683 (Pari. Reg.). 

132. SMITH, Joshua ( -1662), was ejected from the 

Vicarage of Little Ouseburn, about five miles from 
Boroughbridge. [Morrice says " Osborn " ; Calamy, 
1st edition, " Kerby Hall." Kirby Hall is a township 
in the parish of Little Ouseburn, and is the residence 
of H. S. Thompson, Esq. Sir J. Dickenson, M.P. for 
York in the Barebones Parliament, lived at Kirkby Hall.] 



148 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

He was born at Leeds, and educated at Katherine Hall, 
Cambridge. He was at Healaugh, near Tadcaster, 
January 17th, 1658, when he signed a certificate on the 
presentation of Henry Constantine to Moor-Monkton. 
When he settled in the country he became a very zealous 
preacher. He took much pains in instructing his people 
in public and private, and the Lord succeeded his 
endeavours. He did much good in a little time, for he 
quickly ran out his race, and died near York in 1662. 

133. SPOFFORD, John (1588-1669), was ejected from the 
Vicarage of Silkstone in 1662. [Palmer spells the name 
Spawford.] 

He was appointed to this vicarage by order of the 
House of Lords, December 26th, 1642 : 

M Whereas the Lords and Commons for divers weighty reasons 
have declared that they intend altogether to abolish and take away 
the jurisdiction and office of Archbishop and Bishops within the 
realm of England and dominion of Wales ; now considering how 
much prejudice hath been brought upon this Church and State by 
such unworthy persons as are usually presented to those benefices 
within this kingdom, wherewith their patrons have for the most part 
constantly promoted such as have fomented the unhappy distemper 
wherewith this kingdom is now so much afflicted; and being 
informed that the Vicarage of Silkston within the jurisdiction and 
presentation of York is now lately become void [the former 
incumbent being named Walker]: 

It is this day ordered by the Lords and Commons that John 
Spofford, clerk, shall be enabled to serve the Church and receive the 
profits and funds of the vicarage of Silkston aforesaid, and the 
Archbishop and Archdeacon of York be hereby prohibited to present 
or grant institution or induction to any other clerk for the vicarage 
of Silkston, until both Houses of Parliament shall take further 
provision for the same." (Jour. House of Lords.) 

He signed the West Riding Ministers' Attestation 
in 1648; "a preaching minister" (Pari. Sur.) ; and 
continued till Bartholomew's Day. 

On his ejection, at the age of 74, Robert Cotton, a 
worthy, pious gentleman of the parish, took him into 
his house and kept him as long as he lived. Heywood 
visited him there in 1668 ; and in the following year he 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 149 

died, aged a little over 80. He was a devout man, of 
competent abilities, very plain in his preaching, holy in 
his life, facetious in his discourse, and a lover of all good 
men. His widow died in 1679, aged 94, at the house of 
John Hulme, who married his daughter. 

134. STABLES (Christian name not given), was ejected at 

Chapeltown. 

The place is uncertain. 

There is a Chapelton in the parish of Ecclesfield, but 
there appears to have been no chapel there in 1662. 

There is also a Chapel-allerton, or sometimes called 
Chapelton, near Leeds — the first incumbent of which, 
according to the list, being Mr. Burnell in 1660, who was 
followed by James Medcalf in 1663. 

Samuel Stables, Oxford, B.A., from Sidney College, 
Cambridge, 1651-2, incorp. July 12th, 1653 ; was rector of 
Goldsbro, Yorks, 1670. 

The house of Samuel Stables at Calverley, was 
licensed as a Presbyterian meeting in 1672. 

135. STEVENSON, Anthony, was ejected from the Rectory 

of Roos, in Holderness. 

In the Parish Register there is the following entry, 
"Master Stevenson is the minister of Roose until 
Bartholomew Day next, 1662." He had good ministerial 
furniture, and was also well skilled in physic, which he 
administered to the poor gratis. He was an old man 
when ejected, but in good circumstances and continued 
at Roos until his death. 

136. SWIFT, Henry (1621-1689), was a nonconforming 

minister in the Parish Church of Pmistone. 

After the removal of Christopher Dickinson, " a man 
of scandalous life and conversation " (Diary of Adam 
Eyre, pp. 19, 25), he was chosen vicar by the inhabitants 
of the parish in 1649 ; and was described as " a preaching 
minister" (Pari. Sur.). 

He continued preaching in the Parish Church after 
Bartholomew's Day, without conforming. He is perhaps 



150 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

the only instance of a nonconformist minister holding 
his living until his death. It was a poor living, and no 
one cared for it * ; it was doubtful where the right of 
nomination was ; and the Bosviles of Gunthwaite, who 
were declared to have the best claims to it, and had 
themselves been active in the Parliamentary cause, would 
not be anxious to remove him. The Wordsworths of 
Waterhall and the Riches of Bullhouse were also his 
supporters; so he continued preaching in the church 
even to the end of his life. 

He was nevertheless subjected to much trouble for not 
conforming. He was three months in York Castle under 
the Five Mile Act, several ejected nonconformists 
preaching for him all the while. As soon as he was at 
liberty he began to preach again. Having been imprisoned 
a third time he was prevailed with to take the Oxford 
Oath (1666), " not at any time to endeavour any alteration 
of government in Church or State," an oath which 
nonconformist ministers generally refused to take. 

He read some few prayers to keep his place, but never 
made the required subscription. From the Archbishop's 
Presentation Book (1674), ** appears that he was 
prosecuted for not burying the dead according to the order 
prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer; for not 
wearing the surplice when he read prayers and performed 
the offices ; for not bidding holy-days and neglecting to 
perambulate ; for preaching without the gown, and for 
instructing and examining the youth in their catechisms 
[the Assembly's] and neglecting to use that in the 
Common Prayer. (Diary of John Shawe : Surtees Soc, 

p. 158.) 

Penistone was one of the earliest churches in which 
Heywood preached after his ejection at Coley (May 15th, 
1664) ; and he often refers to his subsequent visits to Mr. 
Swift. " The Church," he says, " had been a garrison 

* " There was no striving for the place, which was but a small vicarage ; 
the profits whereof, till it came to Easter reckonings, were gleaned by the 
Duke of Norfolk, who only allowed the incumbent a small stipend." 
(Cal., 1st. ed.) 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 151 

in the time of war by Sir Francis Wortley, whose seat 
was at no great distance, and who from hence roved up 
and down the country robbing and taxing many honest 
people ; but now the good people from all parts flock 
thither, and they are sweetly refreshed with the bread 
of life in public when a spiritual famine is throughout 
the land." (Diar. III. 9.) 

In 1672 Nathan Denton had licence for a meeting at 
the house of Silvanus Rich at Bullhouse (about two miles 
from the Parish Church) ; and at the same time the 
house of Thomas Haigh, of Halsehead, was similarly 
licensed. In 1682, Mr. Swift preached at Holmfirth (a 
chapelry of Kirkburton), for Mr. Savill, minister there, 
when he was sick ; and upon Sabbath, August 8th, Mr. 
Briggs, vicar of Kirkburton, ordered a citation to be read 
against him for baptizing a child without the sign of the 
Cross, and churching a woman in the pulpit ; and Mr. 
Savill read it at Holmfirth. 

He died suddenly October 31st, 1689, and his tombstone 
in Penistone Church bears the following inscription : 
" Here was interred the body of Mr. Henry Swift, 
November 2nd, 1689, aged 66 years, and having been 
minister of Penistone 40 years." (Thoresby, Corr. I. 278.) 

137. TAYLOR, Richard (1636-1681), was silenced at Great 
Houghton, in the parish of Darfield. 

He was born at Sheffield, May 17th, 1636 ; educated at 
Magdalen College, Cambridge ; chaplain in the family of 
Mrs. Dalton, Fulbourn, near Cambridge, preaching in the 
neighbourhood ; whence he came to Great Houghton as 
chaplain to Sir Edward Rodes, who had built a chapel 
adjacent to his mansion in 1650. Here he was living 
when silenced by the Act of Uniformity. 

He had licence to preach at the house of John 
Wadsworth at Swaithe Hall as a Congregationalist 
(May 22nd, 1672), also at the house of Fisher, Sheffield, 
where he ministered till his death in March, 1681, at the 
age of 45. Morrice says he was Independent, and not 
ordained. Calamy, 1st Ed., says : " He was a serious, 



152 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

zealous Christian and a plain laborious preacher, and 
God owned his ministry in these parts for the good of 
many." Calamy derived most of his information from a 
MS. entitled, "A Thankful Remembrance of Some 
Remarkable Acts of the Lord's good Providence towards 
me, Richard Taylor." 

138. THOMAS, Gilbert, was ejected from the Vicarage of 

Stillingfleety seven miles from York. 

He was here about 1650; and signed certificates in 
1659 to Stephen Arlush and Thomas Burdsall. We 
have not ascertained anything else respecting him. 

139. THELWALL, John (1621-1684), was ejected from the 

Rectory of Whiston, two miles from Rotherham. 

He was son of Simon Thelwall, Esq., of Plan-ynys, 
Denbighshire, where he was born; admitted pensioner 
to St. John's College, Cambridge, October 20th, 1636, aet. 
15. Walker says some one was a sufferer at Whiston. 
Thomas Pawson appears to have been there in 1650 ; 
signed at meeting of York, 1644; "a painful preacher of 
good conversation " (Pari. Sur.). Thelwall signed a 
certificate to Thomas Burdsall in 1658. After his ejection 
he continued to reside at Whiston, had licence for his 
own house there as a Presbyterian (December 22nd, 1672), 
and died in 1684, aged about 63. 

140. THORPE, Richard (1638-1713), was silenced at Hopton, 

in the parish of Mivfield. 

He had a patrimony at Hopton Hall, and was prepar- 
ing for the ministry when the Act of Uniformity took 
place. It is said that he was much pressed to conform 
and accept a parish living ; but he could not conscien- 
tiously do so, and cast in his lot with the nonconformists. 
He held religious meetings in his own house as he had 
opportunity ; and was often visited there by Heywood 
from 1666 onwards. He founded a free school at Mirfield 
by deed dated February 24th, 1667, for teaching fifteen 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 153 

poor children to read English well. Under the Declara- 
tion of Indulgence he had licence for his house as a 
Presbyterian (September 30th, 1672). In the first 
ordination service among nonconformists held in York- 
shire, at Richard Mitchell's, Marton Scar, near Skipton, 
(July 8th, 1676), he was ordained by Hey wood, Frankland 
and Dawson ; the other candidates being John Issott 
and John Darnton. " Mr. Thorpe," says Heywood, 
"adhered in some points of faith, justification, which Mr. 
Frankland disowned, and which occasioned a short 
amicable dispute. He also positioned on the thesis Datur 
Divina Providentia, delivering a learned discourse in 
Latin." He does not appear to have suffered much from 
persecution. After the Act of Toleration was passed the 
house of Michael Sheard, at Hopton, was certified as a 
meeting-place for Protestant dissenters, It is probable 
that henceforth, if not before, Hopton Hall ceased to be 
the meeting-place. 

Richard Thorpe was buried at Mirfield, January 30th, 
1713. His son, Daniel Thorpe, preached at the meeting 
after the decease of his father; but he did not assume 
the position of minister. The Lord's Supper was not 
administered for twenty years, and only two who had 
been communicants with Mr. Thorpe joined the Church 
formed in 1732, when the first chapel was built. He is 
also said to have often preached at Barnsley ; he died 
suddenly, March nth, 1719, and was buried at Mirfield. 
After this various occasioned ministers preached at Hopton. 
Another Richard Thorpe, son or nephew of the first- 
named, purchased Lees Hall, near Thornhill, and died 
there, January 6th, 1715. The widow of the first-named 
died May 8th, 1725, at the house of Richard Hutton, of 
Pudsey, husband of her daughter Mary, who, after his 
decease, left a valuable endowment to the nonconformist 
ministers of Hopton, and seven other places. 

141. TODD, Cornelius, M.A. (1631-1696), was ejected from 
the Vicarage of Bilton, five miles from Wetherby. 

He was the second son of Robert Todd, ejected at 



154 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

Leeds ; and born at Ledsham, where his father was then 
vicar; educated at Leeds Grammar School and Clare 
Hall, Cambridge. After taking his degrees he became 
chaplain to the religious and charitable Mrs. Leighton, 
and afterwards to Lord Fairfax, at Nun-Appleton, in the 
parish of Bilborough. He was ordained at Adel, October 
31st, 1655 (see Johnson). Lord Fairfax gave him the 
living of Bilborough, and in 1659 (J an uary 19th) he was 
presented by the trustees for the maintenance of ministers 
to the vicarage of Bilton. He built here a new vicarage 
house, which, at his ejection, he was compelled to leave 
without any compensation for his outlay thereon. 

After his ejection he held on his ministry with many 
discouragements. But through the kindness of Philip, 
Lord Wharton, he lived at Healaugh Manor, near 
Tadcaster, and received £8 per annum during his life. 
He had licence as an Independent to preach at Healaugh 
Manor (May 20th), and in or nigh the town of Leeds or 
elsewhere (September 30th). On the same date the 
house of John Todd, perhaps a brother of Cornelius, at 
Tadcaster, was licensed as an Independent meeting-place. 
After the erection of a meeting-house at Mill Hill, 
Leeds, he was chosen one of the four ministers to preach 
there. When officers were sent by the Mayor to disperse 
the assembly (August 16th, 1674), ne addressed them to 
the effect that "he could not but lament that while in 
Rome, and under Nero, Paul could for three years be 
permitted to preach in his own hired house, he should 
not be allowed to preach in a Christian Church and 
State." Though he was a very plain man, and no fluent 
orator, what he said had such an effect that he was 
permitted to go on quietly with the service without 
further disturbance. 

Having been afterwards obliged to retire, he lived 
privately at Healaugh, preaching as he had opportunity, 
until he was invited by " the incomparable Lady Brooke " 
to preach at Ellinthorpe, near Boroughbridge, where her 
late husband, Aid. Brooke, had erected a domestic chapel 
near his mansion ; which he did, taking his turn with 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 155 

others of his brethren. When preaching at the house of 
John Disney, Esq., he was taken and sent prisoner to 
Pontefract, where he was kept so close that he was seized 
with a fever and pleurisy and narrowly escaped with his 
life. We find him in 1685 assisting Heywood at a 
religious service at Mr. Hutton's, at Pocklington, near 
York. He died suddenly, June 29th, 1696, aged 65, and 
was buried at Alne. He was a pious man, an Israelite 
indeed; who continued his ministry under many dis- 
couragements and disadvantages. 

142. TODD, Robert, M.A. (1594- 1664), was ejected from the 
Perpetual Curacy of St. John's Church, Leeds. 

He was born at South Cave, in the East Riding, 
educated at Jesus College, Cambridge; and was one of 
forty-five whom Archbishop Toby Matthew ordained Sep- 
tember 2nd, 1621. After ministering at Swinefleet Chapel 
and Whitgift Church he was presented to the vicarage of 
Ledsham, in 1615, by R. Harebred, Esq. On the death 
of Richard Garbut, B.D., in 1630, he was appointed 
lecturer at the Parish Church of Leeds, and in 1634 
chosen first incumbent of the new church of St. John's, 
built by Mr. Harrison. 

When the church was consecrated by Archbishop 
Neile, September 21st, 1634, Dr. Cosins (afterwards 
Bishop of Durham) preached on the text, " Let all things 
be done decently and in order " (1 Cor. xiv. 40) ; and in 
the afternoon Mr. Todd expounded these words in the 
Catechism, which fell in course, "Yes, verily, and by 
God's help, so I will." Something that he said was 
supposed to reflect upon the hyper-conformity recom- 
mended in the Doctor's sermon, and so resented that he was 
suspended from his office for twelve months ; but on the 
intercession of Mr. Harrison and Sir Arthur Ingram, his 
suspension was removed. He devoted himself with great 
diligence and fidelity to his pastoral duties. During the 
visitation of the plague in 1646, when above 1,300 were 
swept away at Leeds, he preached on " Hezekiah's Boil," 
which many have thought to be the plague ; and his 



156 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

sermons were made effectual to the conversion of many 
souls. He was a great textuary and a very Scriptural 
preacher. He used to hold a weekly conference with 
some of his people on some passage of Scripture, or some 
case of conscience proposed the preceding week. He 
was an excellent scholar, a solid, substantial and agree- 
able preacher, though his voice was remarkably loud. 

" His sermons at Leeds are kept in many hands as a 
precious treasure " (" Life of Thoresby "). 

He set up the Presbyterian discipline at St. John's, 
though not without some trouble; signed the West 
Riding Ministers' Attestation; and was described as 
"an able and constant preacher " (Pari. Sur.). 

When ejected by the Act of Uniformity he was deeply 
affected, and mourned in secret ; but continued his 
attendance at public worship, and afterwards preached 
privately in his own house. In his last sickness, R. 
Chomley, Esq., in gratitude for the good he had received 
under his ministry, desired his leave to send for a 
physician ; but he said : " No, there is but one in England 
who can do me good, and that is King Charles, by giving 
me liberty to preach." He died January 16th, 1664, 
aged 67 ; and was buried in the church where he had so 
long ministered. 

He wrote the " Epistle " which is prefixed to Elkanah 
Wales' " Mount Ebal Levelled," dated April 21st, 1658. 

143. TOWNE, Robert (1592- 1664), was ejected from the 
Chapelry of Haworth, in the parish of Bradford. 

He was a native of Yorkshire ; educated at Oriel 
College, Oxford ; matriculated December 4th, 1612, 
aet. 19 ; B.A. June 13th, 1614. 

He was at Heywood Chapel, Lanes., in 1640, when 
he was regarded as an Antinomian and a follower of 
Brierley of Grindleton ; and addressed the following 
memorial to the Bishop of Chester, July 31st, 1640 : 

" To the Bishop of Chester. 

Whereas I Robert Towne, clerke, now curate of Heywood 
chapel in the co. of Lancaster, have been charged to hold the 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 157 

opinion of the Priscilianists and Antinomians, and in these parts by 
some called Grindlestonians* I do hereby' professe that I hould no 
such opinion, but doe utterly renounce and disclaime the same. 

And I doe also affirme that I have not by word or writing 
broached any doctrine which can justly be said to favor the said 
opinion to the best of my remembrance ; and if I have the same 
hath carnallye fallen from me, or rather been mistaken by some 
hearers : and howsoever I doe hereby faithfully promise to be more 
wary hereafter, and that I will not give any just cause or scandall 
or offence in doctrine or otherwise to the Church of God, or any 
member of the same. 

In witness whereof I have hereunder subscribed my hand the day 
and year above written. 

Robert Towne, clerke." t 

He was appointed to Todmorden Chapel, in 1643, and 
left before 1650. In February, 1647-8, the Bury Classis 
determined that he should not continue at Todmorden. 
He became curate at Elland, in the parish of Halifax, 
in 1652 ; was appointed registrar October 17th, 1653 ; 
" a constant preacher of God's Word, and hath for his 
sallarye £27 13s. 4d. per annum arising out of lands 
allotted for that use" (Pari. Sur.). "At Elland," says 
Heywood, "was old Mr. Robert Towne, the famous 
Antinomian, who writ some books ; he was the best 
scholar and soberest man of that judgment in the 
country, but something unsound in principles." He 
removed to Haworth i% 1655, and continued there till 

*Or Grindletonians, from Grindleton, a chapelry of the parish of 
Milton, in Craven, where Robert Brereley or Brierley (1586-1637) was 
curate, a plain and popular Calvinistic preacher, and had many followers 
who were thus scornfully named. He was tried before the High Com- 
mission at York for Antinomian and others errors, but acquitted by 
Archbishop Tobias Matthew ; preached a sermon in the Minster, and 
was afterwards (1631) instituted to the living of Burnley. Numerous 
sermons and tracts of his were published. Dr. Whitaker (1618) speaks 
of him as " some frantic enthusiast of the time who turned the heads of 
his followers." The Grindletonians are mentioned by Lord Brooke in 
The Nature of the Episcopate, &>c. ; by Ephraim Pagitt in his Hevesiography 
(1661) ; and by many others ; but they never formed themselves into a 
distinct and separate sect. It is not improbable that Robert Towne in 
his early ministry was associated with Brereley. _J 

t Surtees Society : Bury Classis, p. 234. There was a further complaint 
against him for Antinomianism in the Assembly of Divines, Aug., 1643 
(Lightfoot's Works VIII. 9 ; Com. Jour. III. 200). 



158 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 



he was ejected by the Act of Uniformity. He did not 
live long afterwards, but died in June, 1664, aged 72, and 
was buried at Haworth. 

He published " The Assertion of Grace; or, a Defence 
of the Doctrine of Free Justification against the Law- 
lesse, unjust and uncharitable imputation of Antifidians, 
or Favorites of Anti-christ, who under a pretended zeal 
for the Law do pervert, oppugn and obscure the sim- 
plicitie of the Gospel. By Robert Towne, Minister of 
the Gospel. Printed for Edification of the Faithful " 
(no date). In the first chapter he says : 

" Yet I wish that I be not mistaken, for I never deny the Law to 
be an eternal and inviolate Rule of Righteousness ; but yet affirm 
that it is the Grace of the Gospel which effectually and truly con- 
formeth thereunto." 

Also "A Re-assertion of Grace, &c," London, 1654; 
and " Monomachia, or a simple reply to Mr. Rutherford's 
book, &c.," London, 1654. He was the father of Robert 
Towne, ejected minister at Accrington, Lanes. ; and 
uncle of Daniel Towne, curate of Heptonstall, who 
conformed. 

144. WAITE, Thomas, was ejected from the Vicarage 
of Wetwang, six miles west of Driffield, in the East 
Riding. 

Nothing is known of him prior to 1650, the date of 
the Parliamentary Survey ; in which, under the heading 
u Wetwang et Fimber," this entry occurs: "Mr. 
Thomas Waite, an able preaching minister, supplies 
both places." 

He had one son and three daughters, who were all 
baptized between 1654 and 1661. His successor, Ralph 
Wittie, was appointed in January, 1662-3. 

Calamy says : " He was diligent in his work, but 
seemed not to have any great success. He continued 
here after his ejectment and preached in his own house 
publicly. His wife taught school, and he assisted her . . . 
He was sometimes disturbed by the constable when 
preaching in his house, where he would have all his wife's 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 159 

scholars attend ; but he continued doing it without fear, 
and with his doors open." 

For the support of his family he tilled a small farm 
which he had purchased, threshing his own corn, and in 
winter tending his own cows. " Being well esteemed by 
Lady Norcliff [daughter of Sir T. Fairfax], she allowed 
him £5 a year ... He was a man of singular piety, 
whose way of living was so different from that of his 
neighbours that he seemed like a man of another 
country." He was one of three persons to whom, in 
November, 1662, Nathaniel Jackson, the ejected vicar of 
Barwick-in-Elmet, left £20 per annum for pious uses. 
He probably left Wetwang before 1672; for his name 
does not appear among the licensees under the In- 
dulgence, nor is it found in the Burials Register of the 
parish. 

145. WALES, Elkanah (1588-1669), was ejected from the 
Chapelry of Pudsey, in the parish of Calverley, near 
Bradford, in 1662. 

He was the second son of John Wales, of Idle ; born 
there in the memorable year 1588 (the Spanish Armada), 
and baptized at Calverley, December 15th ; educated at 
Trinity College, Cambridge ; B.A. 1608, M.A. 1609 ; 
licensed by Archbishop Tobie Matthew to the office of 
a curate at the church of Calverley about 1615, during 
the suspension of James Smith, vicar ; and soon after- 
wards, if not previously, at the invitation of the people 
of Pudsey became their minister : 

"Where," as stated by Thoresby, "without the least 
secular advantages he became very famous for his pure 
work's sake, being a person of great holiness and 
unspotted life. Here he laboured mightily in word and 
doctrine, taking wondrous pains in preaching, praying, 
catechising and expounding; though after all he saw 
not so much fruit of his ministry among them as he 
desired and others expected, so that it might be said of 
him as of worthy Mr. Greenham [Richard Greenham, 



160 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

1535-1594, an eminent Puritan minister of Dry Drayton, 
near Cambridge] , ■ he had pastures green, but sheep 
full lean. 5 But his ministry was more effectual upon 
multitudes of others who from all the regions round 
about flocked to hear him, many of whom owned him 
as their spiritual father and had their fleece wet when 
others were dry." 

The worthy just named, after he had many years 
watered Dry Drayton with his tears and found no 
proportionable fruitfulness, was prevailed upon by the 
importunity of his friends to leave his parish to a worthy 
successor and removed to London ; but poor Pudsey was 
so much engraven upon Mr. Wales' heart that nothing 
could obliterate it. 

He was often called to take part in the famous 
Monthly Exercises at Leeds and Halifax, and at Public 
Fasts, Thanksgivings and Holy-days. Before the Puritan 
Revolution, when the Archbishop of York was Neile, who 
declared himself an enemy of the Puritan faction, he 
entertained strong thoughts of going to New England, 
to escape ecclesiastical oppression; and was invited to 
become assistant to Ezekiel Rogers, the notable Puritan 
minister of Rowley. His eldest brother, Nathaniel, 
emigrated to Boston, and died there. Amidst the 
agitations that immediately preceded the civil war he 
kept many fast days at Pudsey, on one of which, when 
the expectation of the Irish filled the country with dread, 
immense consternation was caused by a man who came 
and stood in the chapel door in time of service and cried 
out with a lamentable voice, " Friends ! the Irish Rebels 
are coming. We are all as good as dead men" (1641). 
Happily the alarm was groundless. 

When the Cavaliers were dominant in the neighbour- 
hood he was much harassed; his study was rifled and 
most of his books carried away. On the other hand he 
was greatly befriended by Lord Fairfax, who made him 
several noble offers of considerable preferment. He was 
urged to settle in Lancashire (1643), at Newcastle (1644), 
at Carlisle (1645), and as assistant of Robert Todd, the 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 161 

first incumbent of St. John's, Leeds. But nothing could 
induce him to leave his poor curacy at Pudsey. 

He was a decided Presbyterian with Royalist leanings ; 
signed the Vindiciae Veritatis, or the West Riding 
Ministers' Attestation in favour of a Presbyterian Estab- 
lishment ; assisted in dividing the West Riding into 
Classical Presbyteries (April 6th, 1648) ; and when these 
Presbyteries, unsupported by coercive authority, became 
merely voluntary associations, took an active part therein. 
He preached December 8th, 1649, on a day of solemn 
humiliation at St. John's, at the setting up of Presbyterian 
discipline there, and at the ordination of Mr. Sale as 
assistant to Mr. Todd ; and gave exhortations before the 
sacrament in the same church, and at the classes there 
and at Hunslet, the last of which was April, 1662. 

He was described in the Parliamentary Survey as " a 
grave and frequent preacher, maintained by the benevo- 
lence of the people, only £10 per annum being allowed 
one of the rectory after Mr. Waugh's decease." Crom- 
well was informed at Doncaster that he united with 
others in U some consultations against the present 
Government, and in special to set up the old Cavalier 
Fast which the late King had set up " (August 20th, 
1651). A certificate of the ordination of a minister by 
the Classical Presbytery at Adel, near Leeds, October 
31st, 1655, was signed by him and others, Thomas 
Hawksworth, of Hunslet, being Moderator. 

He left behind him a great quantity of sermons and 
expositions written by him over a long period, which 
were in the possession of Thoresby, whose father, John 
Thoresby, was one of his most intimate friends ; but he 
published nothing except "A Short Catechism for Young 
Persons" (1652), a tract entitled "A Writ of Error" 
(1654), and an excellent little book called " Mount Ebal 
Levelled, or the Curse Removed " (1659), which was 
dedicated to Lord Fairfax and prefaced by recom- 
mendatory letters by Edmund Calamy, Edward Bowles 
and Robert Todd. 

According to the testimony of his admiring friends he 



162 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

was indeed an excellent preacher of a profound judgment, 
and had an admirable art in pressing practical truths 
home upon the conscience and exemplifying things by 
pertinent and familiar similitudes. He had an excellent 
faculty in opening the Scriptures as he quoted them, and 
showed his learning in making things plain, not obscure. 
He was specially remarkable for his humility and self- 
denial. His motto was : " Less than the least of all 
saints." With great liberality he educated at the Uni- 
versities three of the orphan children of his brother 
Samuel, sometime minister at St. Mary's, Morley. He 
was a tall man, of a comely countenance and engaging 
behaviour ; his excellent disposition was so improved by 
grace as to render him exceedingly amiable. His portrait 
was at one time as common at Leeds as that of Mr. 
Bowles, of York. 

Of his wife Anna, nothing is recorded except the 
initials of her name and the date of her death on a grave- 
stone in the churchyard of the old Chapel, " A.W., May 
16, 1660." At the age of 73 he married for his second 
wife Mary Butler (Clavering), widow of Thomas Butler, 
merchant, at St. John's, Newcastle, September 3rd, 1661* ; 
in reference to whom Thoresby remarks, " the good man 
had Mr. Hooker's hap in this respect — the best men 
have not always the best wives — so that his deafness in 
his later years seemed to be a special mercy to him, his 
wife having too much of Xantippe's tongue, though 
otherwise a good woman. 

In common with his friend Edward Bowles and other 
Presbyterians, he was desirous of the restoration of 
Charles II., little anticipating the results that followed. 
After the passing of the Act of Uniformity he still 

* She was the mother of Jane, wife of John Oxenbridge, M.A., some- 
time Congregational minister at Beverley, and of Mary, wife of Ambrose 
Barnes, the Diarist. Barnes tells the story of Sir James Clavering, of 
Axwells, Durham (first cousin of his wife), that one day, speaking seriously 
and closely to the old baronet concerning the life to come and what a call 
old age is to prepare for it, the latter replied, " Ay, cousin Barnes, you say 
true, I hope I shall be saved for I never pay visits on Sundays, but keep 
within doors and read 4 Dugdale's Baronage of England. ' " 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 163 

preached in the Chapel till its doors were locked against 
him, and then he was reported at the Archdeacon's visi- 
tation " for causing the chapel-door to be broken open 
and for preaching there contrary to the Act of Parliament, 
4th October, 1663." 

He continued to reside at Pudsey, preaching at various 
places as he had opportunity, and having James Sale, 
ejected from St. John's, Leeds, as his companion and 
comfort. On one occasion he was arrested for preaching in 
the Chapel at Bramley, near Leeds, and brought before the 
Justices ; and was released in consideration of his advanced 
age. Taking advantage of the Five Mile Act an ill neigh- 
bour compelled him to leave his house. Heywood says 
(August 25th, 1666) that he " travelled a little way with 
Mr. Wales, who is banished from home and is gone into 
the North with his wife" (who never returned but died 
at Newcastle in 1668). During his absence his house was 
taken possession of, and his goods were thrown into the 
street. 

For the last two or three years of his life he resided 
with friends at Leeds, who were glad of his company. 
He had the happiness of sana senectus, to which his tem- 
perance both in diet and passion contributed ; he died in 
peace at the house of his cousin, Robert Hickson, of 
Leeds, May 10th, 1669, and was buried on the following 
day. " Precious Mr. Wales," wrote Heywood in his 
Diary, " is dead in my absence, buried at Leeds, May 
nth." He was interred at St. John's Church, in the 
grave where his friend Robert Todd had been placed five 
years before, and where Thomas Sharp was at a later 
date laid beside them. " How voluminously," says 
Thoresby, "one stone covers three so great and good 
men, whose memory will live for ever in these parts." 

By his Will, dated April 7th, 1669, he gave, along with 
numerous legacies to his relatives and friends, small sums 
to the poor of Calverley, Pudsey and Idle. Prior to that 
date he had conveyed to Trustees a Parsonage house and 
two closes of land with a croft, all lying in Pudsey, upon 
trust, "to suffer such preaching minister and ministers 



164 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

duly elected to preach the word of God in the said Chapel 
of Pudsey," the benefit of which has been ever since 
enjoyed by the ministers of the Church from which he 
himself was excluded. 

146. WALTON. Calamy mentions a " Mr. Walton " as 

ejected from Kirby Mall; probably Kirkby Malzeard, 
six miles from Ripon. 

Nothing is known of him. At the time of the Parlia- 
mentary Survey, Nicholas Walton, "a preaching 
minister," was vicar of Bolton-in-Craven. 

147. WARHAM [also spelled Wharham and Wherham] , 

Richard (1640- ), was silenced in Yorkshire, and 
afterwards preached at Badsworth, five ' miles from 
Pontefract. 

He was son of John Waram, of Barnburgh, hus- 
bandman; bred at Doncaster under Mr. Cooke two 
years ; admitted to St. John's College, Cambridge, 
October 20th, 1657, aet. 17. He was not fixed in any 
living in 1662. But we find him obtaining a licence as a 
Presbyterian at the house of Milcock, Badsworth, in 
1672. 

148. WATERHOUSE, Jonas, M.A. (1627-1717), was ejected 

from a Curacy in Bradford. 

He was the son of Henry Waterhouse, of Tooting, 
Surrey; but his family originally belonged to Halifax. 
(See Thoresby's Diary I. 60, note.) He graduated at 
St. John's College, Cambridge, of which College he was 
sometime Fellow. He is described as " a learned man, a 
lover of peace, and greatly esteemed for his work's sake." 
After his ejectment he lived privately, and frequented the 
established worship ; but was accustomed to preach on 
Sunday evenings in his own house : however, his name 
does not appear among the licensees in 1672. He printed 
a "Discourse of God and Religion," a copy of which he 
presented to Thoresby on September 19th, 1692 (Diary 
I. 228). He died at Bradford on February 13th, 1716-17, 
in the ninetieth year of his age. (Northowram Register.) 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 165 

149. WHITEHURST. Richard ( -1697), was ejected from 
the Vicarage of Laughton-en-le-Morthen, five miles from 
Rotherham. 

After his ejection he continued to reside at Laughton, 
under the protection of Anthony Hatfield, Esq., of West- 
hall, Hatfield ; who belonged to an eminent Puritan 
family, was a great friend to nonconformist ministers, 
and married a daughter of Lady Dorothy Norcliffe, of 
Langton Hall, near Malton (a member of the old Con- 
gregational Church at Hull). 

When Heywood visited Westhall in 1666 he found Mr. 
Whitehurst "an honest nonconformist living openly 
and quietly in his old place." The mansion was spacious 
and contained a large hall where worship was frequently 
performed notwithstanding the severity of the laws. The 
preacher usually stood in a passage leading to the other 
rooms, having in times of special danger a thin curtain 
drawn before him, through which he could see the 
audience though he could not easily be seen. 

Under the Declaration of Indulgence he applied for a 
licence for a Congregational meeting at a certain house 
at Westhall, Hatfield. But owing to the objection 
commonly made to public halls the application does not 
appear to have been approved (April 27th, 1672) ; though 
John Rooke had a licence for a Congregational meeting 
at his own house at Westhall, Hatfield (June 20th). 

Soon afterwards Whitehurst became pastor of the Con- 
gregational Church in Bradford-dale, which had been 
formed about 1655, and met in different places at Allerton, 
Thornton and Horton, near Bradford. He was at first very 
popular ; but owing to his inclination to Fifth Monarchy 
opinions and Antinomianism, and, according to Heywood, 
to " giving leave to private men to exercise their gifts 
publicly," a difference arose between him and some of the 
members of the Church, which led to a division ; one 
party worshipping at Lidiat [Lidget], Clayton, where 
Mr. Whitehurst had already (1678) built a new meeting- 
house, the other at Kipping, Thornton. 



1 66 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

He continued to minister at Lidiat for many years and 
in a time of severe persecution. Under the Toleration 
Act it was certified to the Quarter Sessions at Leeds, 
in July, 1689, that " an Assembly of dissenting Protes- 
tants in and about Bradford and Bradford-dale do make 
choice of the house of Richard Whitehurst, clerk, 
Lidgate, Clayton." Three or four years afterwards he 
removed to Bridlington, where he died of a fever, 
September 5th, 1697. 

150. WILLIAMS, Peter (1625-1680), was ejected from the 
Minster at York. 

He was born at Salisbury. He came to York as a 
tutor in the family of Aid. James Brook,* and instructor 
of his son, afterwards Sir John Brook. He was curate 
of St. John the Evangelist, Ousebridge, in 1650 ; and in 
1655 one of the four preachers at the Minster and 
All-hallows. 

After being silenced by the Act of Uniformity he kept 
close to his study, but preached a week-day lecture at the 
house of Lady Lister.t Many envied his liberty, but 
durst not disturb him while under the wing of such an 
honourable person, who was nearly related to thirty 
Knights and persons of the best rank. 

After her death he held a lecture at Lady Watson's J 

* Brook, Aid. James, Lord Mayor 1651, died 1675, aged 81, 
buried at Aldborough. He bought an estate at Ellinthorp in that 
neighbourhood, and built a chapel adjacent to his mansion in 1658. 
His wife Priscilla (Jackson) survived him, resided at Howgrave, a few 
miles distant, where she made her will, December nth, 1691, being then 
very old, to be buried with her husband, and died February 23rd, 1706. 
In her will she mentions Thomas Bendlow, of Howgrave, and his 
children. Their son, Sir John Brook, Bart. (June 13th, 1676), married 
Mary, daughter of Sir Hardress Waller, and left several daughters ; one of 
whom, Mary, married William Procter, whose son Anthony lived at 
Barwick. 

f Lady Lister was widow of Sir William Lister, of Thornton-in- 
Craven, and daughter of Sir H. Bellasis, of Newburgh, whose powerful 
patronage protected him from the annoyance to which others were 
exposed. 

X Lady Watson. Her father's name was Nelson and she was born in 
Westmoreland. It is said that she was married at eleven years old (born 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 167 

house, which she afterwards gave him by will. He was 
also a friend and spiritual adviser of Mrs. Rokeby (wife 
of Mr. Rokeby, barrister, afterwards judge and knighted). 
A copy of his Book is inscribed " For your selfe," 
and below it " Ex dono authoris U (Ursula) R (Rokeby)." 
He had licence as a general Presbyterian teacher at 
his own house at York (May 21st, 1672). He was a 
sweet tempered, meek-spirited man of great abilities and 
considerable learning, and had a well furnished library. 
He was an exact and curious preacher, very spiritual 
and sententious. He published a volume entitled 
** Philanthropia ; or the Transcendencies of Christ's 
Love towards the Children of Men," 1665 ; which he 
dedicated " to his Christian and dearly beloved friends 
in York and elsewhere, as a public and permanent 
testimonial of unfeigned affection to themselves and real 
gratitude for their respect and favour towards him." 
He died of the stone, attended with a fever, March 20th, 
1680, aged 55. 

151. WILSON, George (1601-1671), was ejected from the 
Vicarage of Easingwold, in the North Riding, in 1662. 

His name appears in a certificate signed by him in 
1658. After his ejection he continued to reside at 
Easingwold till his death, September 22nd, 1671. His 
motto was " Ut vivas vigila." He left by will, in 1666, the 
rent of a close containing over five acres for the benefit 
of the most needy poor. He was a brother-in-law of 
Thomas Calvert, of York, who wrote an elegy in his 
memory. 

1598) ; her first husband lived but two or three years after they were 
married. She then married Stephen Watson (Lord Mayor 1646 and 
1656, died February 28th, 1660). She was eminent for piety and 
hospitality. In times of greatest trouble and persecution, when liberty 
was most restrained, she kept her doors open for both Lord's day and 
week-day meetings ; Mr. Ralph Ward on Thursdays and Mr. Williams 
on Mondays. And when York Castle was filled with prisoners she was 
very liberal and bountiful to the prisoners in the Castle and improved 
her interest in procuring liberty for divers . . . She died October 
4th, 1680 (? 1679), and was buried October 8th, Williams and Ward 
preaching her funeral sermons. 



168 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

152. WILSON, Joseph ( -1678), was ejected from the 
Vicarage of St. Mary's, Beverley. 

Walker says that there were two sufferers at Beverley, 
but he could not ascertain their names. Wilson appears 
to have been appointed in 1639, in which year his 
handwriting first appear in the Register, which also 
contained numerous entries in the same handwriting on 
public events between 1642, when " the King came to 
town," and 1653, when "God gave our Navey a great 
victory over and against the Hollander " (Poulson's 
" Holderness " and " Beverlac " ; Burns : " History of 
Pari. Reg."). 

He had an augmentation out of the Bishop's lands 
(1649) ; was "a constant preacher " (Pari. Sur.). 

On March 20th, 1648, a sermon was preached at St. 
Mary's by Mr. Oxenbridge, who had been nominated by 
the Committee for plundered ministers ; and £40 was 
ordered to Mr. Oxenbridge and Mr. Wilson out of 
Nafferton and Skipsea to be paid and retained for the 
Corporation, Mr. Wilson having had satisfaction for his 
part, and Mr. Oxenbridge requiring nothing " (Corp. 
Records). 

In 1658 Samuel Ferris, minister at Beverley, received 
from the Committee for compoundings, the sum of £43 
for the first nine months of the year. 

At the Restoration it is said that when Mr. Wilson 
attempted to preach at St. Mary's the doors were locked 
against him. A former incumbent, Nicholas Osgoodby, 
was restored ; and Elias Pawson, S.T.B. (who con- 
formed), was appointed "vicar, vice Osgoodby, cl., ceded 
December 18th, C. II. pat." 

He appears to have also officiated at Hessle, for on 
November 1st, 1660, the Bench at Hull ordered that 
Mr. William Styles (who had been removed ten years 
before for refusing the Engagement, and was now at the 
Parish Church, Leeds), should be restored to the 
vicarage, and Joseph Wilson yield up possession of the 
same on December 25th next. 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 169 

In 1661 he preached several times in the Chapel at 
Anlaby — which was partly in the parishes of Kirk Ella, 
Hessle * and North Ferriby (Shaw's Life : Surtees 
Notes). 

After being silenced by the Act of Uniformity, he lived 
privately till 1672, when he obtained a licence as a 
general Presbyterian teacher at Newland, near Hull 
(June 10th), also at the house of Richard Barnes at 
Hull (July 25th) ; a new built Presbyterian meeting- 
house at Blackfriars-gate being also licensed (August 
10th). Here he continued to preach as opportunity was 
afforded to the end of his life. 

He was a very worthy man, a bold, rousing preacher, 
and very zealous against ceremonies. Once when he 
was preaching upon the Brazen Serpent being beat to 
powder, cast into the river and called Nehushtan, he 
said : " I must tell the proudest prelate of them all that 
if they bring up anything into the worship of God 
without the authority of His Word it is no better than 
Nehushtan, a piece of dead brass." 

A hospital for poor persons and a school at Hessle 
were built by means of a legacy left by him. He died 
suddenly in February, 1678. 

153. WITTON, Joshua, M.A. (1614-1674), was ejected from 
the Rectory of Thornhill, near Dewsbury. 

He was the son of Joshua Witton and Sibil, daughter 
of Gilbert Drake, of Halifax ; and was born at Sowerby, 
in the parish of Halifax in 1613 or 1614. He was 
educated at Cambridge, where he graduated M.A. ; and 
became chaplain to old Lord Fairfax. He is said to 
have been godfather to Archbishop Tillotson (1630). 
On May 27th, 1643, he was appointed by the Parlia- 
mentary authorities rector of Thornhill (Com. Jour. III., 
107, 130, 164), where " Hannow " [i.e. James Hannay, 
S.T.P., 1647] is said by Walker to have been a sufferer. 
The benefice was at that time worth £300 per annum. 

* This probably accounts for the imaginary Wilson said to have been 
ejected from Hessle. 



170 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

He signed the " Vindiciae Veritatis," or West Riding 
Ministers' Attestation, in 1648 ; and was described in 
the Parliamentary Survey as " a godly, painful, 
preaching minister." He was appointed by Lord 
Fairfax one of the Commissioners for settling the 
affairs of the Isle of Man ; the others being James 
Challoner, M.P., and Robert Dyneley, Esq., of 
Bramhope. 

After the death of his father, his widowed mother 
married Francis Priestley, of Sowerby, of whom the 
following story is told : Priestley and Witton had a 
discussion respecting tithes ; the former held that it 
was more agreeable to the state of the Church under the 
Gospel for ministers to be maintained by the contribu- 
tions and benevolence of the people than by tithes; 
while Witton, having a good parsonage, argued with 
all his strength to the contrary, but was so pinched that 
he threw his hat upon the table and said : " I profess, 
father, I had rather thresh a whole day than maintain 
an argument with you an hour " (Yorks. Diar., Surtees 
Soc. lxxvii.). 

The Register of Thornhill (which commences in 1645) 
contains entries of the baptism of several of his children ; 
also of the burial of his wife Elizabeth (Thornton), June 
25th, 1656 ; and the following entry, " November 8, 
1662, Dr. William Lacy inducted into the rectory of 
Thornhill" and (in another handwriting) "Joshua 
Witton overhawld." 

When he heard that the Act of Uniformity was 
passed, he and two other ministers hoped that they 
should have been able to comply with the terms of it 
so as to keep their livings, and therefore rode to York 
" with their cloak bags full of distinctions " ; but, having 
read the Act, though they were all men of Catholic 
principles as well as prudence and learning, they 
returned with a resolution to quit all their places rather 
than comply. 

He did not continue the exercise of his ministry, and 
afterwards removed to York ; where he finished his 



MINISTERS EJECTED IN YORKSHIRE. 171 

course, being found dead in his bed, June 1st, 1674, and 
was buried at All Saints, North Street, York, where a 
tablet bears the following inscription (in Latin) : 
" Here rests Joshua Witton ; who, cultured with piety 
and industry, unusually learned in the knowledge of 
sacred letters, conducted himself with liberality and 
constant beneficence to the needy, with innocent cheer- 
fulness of fair manners to all — at the age of sixty, 
departed from this life to a better, on the first day of 
June, A.D., 1674." 

He was one of the almoners of the legacy left by 
Lord Fairfax to poor ministers (1667).* Being blessed 
with a plentiful estate, and having a large acquaintance 
and great influence, he was an excellent friend to his 
poor brethren, to whom he was purse bearer and the 
distributor of the contributions made for them. " He 
was a witty man, and good scholar, an able and 
judicious preacher, a man of an excellent temper, of 
great integrity and unusual sagacity." 

He left behind him a son, Richard Witton, a barrister 
and agent of Lord Fairfax; whose son Richard pur- 
chased Lupset Hall, near Wakefield, formerly the 
seat of Sir John Savile. The present Hall was built 
by Richard Witton and purchased by James Milnes, of 
Thornes House, as a residence for Daniel Gaskell. 

x 54' WOOD, Ralph (1625-1697), was ejected from the 
Chapelry of Saddleworth, in the parish of Rochdale 
(but in the West Riding). 

He was the first minister of the Chapel built at 
Stannington, near Shelfield, from 1652 to 1655, when he 
removed to Saddle worth. He was for a time wonder- 
fully peremptory against conformity ; but afterwards 
himself conformed and obtained the curacy of Ripponden, 
in the parish of Halifax, where he died February 6th, 



*By his will (1667), Lord Fairfax left £100 for the benefit of twenty 
poor ministers to be nominated by Mr. Thomas Calvert and Mr. Joshua 
Witton, Mr. Richard Stretton, of Nunappleton, and Mr. John Gunter, 
of Healaugh (Drake, p. 226). 



172 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

1696-7, aged 72. Heywood has several references to 
him. Palmer intimates that his later life was 
discreditable. 

155- WOOD, Timothy (1617-1680), was ejected from the 
Vicarage of Sandal Magna, near Wakefield. 

He succeeded Joseph Stocks, whom Walker mentions 
as a sufferer here; and was "a painfull minister" 
(Pari. Sur.). He had an augmentation granted out 
of another part of the rectory belonging to Mrs. 
Bridget Waterton, a papist and a delinquent. He 
was one of three in these parts who " could not imagine 
the Act of Uniformity had been so high but that it 
might have been possible. But upon search they found 
the ford too deep ; they could neither wade it nor swim 
it, and therefore they kept themselves safe, on this side, 
with their brethren." Upon his ejection he lived 
sometimes at Sandal ; then he removed into Leicester- 
shire, where he often preached in public churches, and 
died at Belgrave, near Leicester, in 1680, aged 63. 
He was a universal scholar, of a ready wit and voluble 
tongue, a diligent student and of a tenacious memory, 
an excellent preacher and of a peaceable spirit. He 
was as far from plotting as any man, but through 
misrepresentation he was imprisoned in York Castle. 
He had framed a Commonplace Book on all the heads 
of divinity, containing the quintessence of the choice 
authors he had read; but he printed nothing. 



MINISTERS EJECTED OR SILENCED ELSEWHERE. 173 



II. 

MINISTERS EJECTED OR SILENCED 

ELSEWHERE WHO AFTERWARDS LABOURED 

OR RESIDED IN YORKSHIRE. 

1. ASTLEY, Richard (1640-1695), was ejected at Blackrode, 
near Horwich, Lancashire ; and afterwards minister of 
a Congregational Church in Hull. [Calamy and 
Hunter call him Ashley.] 

He was born at Manchester; educated at Cambridge; 
and minister at Blackrode when the Act of Uniformity 
came into operation. 

In 1669 he became pastor of a Congregational Church 
at Hull, which had been constituted in 1643 ; and the 
pastor of which, Robert Luddington, died in 1663.* The 
number of its members was fifty-five (July 10th, 1669). In 
1671 a certificate of the ordination of Thomas Kaye, as 
pastor of the Congregational Church at Walmsley, near 
Bolton, was signed by "Thomas Jollie, of Wymond- 
houses, pastor of the church which formerly met at Altham, 
Lanes.," and Richard Astley, " pastor of the church in 
and about Kingston-upon-Hull." The following year he 
had licence as an Independent for a meeting in the house 
of John Robinson, at Hull (May 15th, 1672), who was a 
ruling elder of the church. Calamy says : " He was a 
very moderate, pious man, of a winning disposition and 
behaviour, generally beloved and honoured by those who 
knew him. He was a very edifying, practical preacher, 
and God made his labours in the congregation at Hull 
very successful for the conversion of many souls. Mr. 
Canne, his predecessor in that place, had leavened 

* Luddington is sometimes wrongly counted among the ejected 
ministers. 



174 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

many of his people with his principles ; but such was the 
prudence and temper of Mr. Astley that he reduced them 
from extravagances, brought them off from their rigid 
opinions, composed their differences, and settled and kept 
them in peace as long as he lived." John Canne, the 
eminent and rigid Separatist, was not, however, Mr. 
Astley's predecessor ; but was chaplain to the garrison 
from 165 1 to 1657, when he was removed from his place 
on account of his Fifth Monarchy opinions, and does not 
appear to have again preached at Hull ; but some of his 
hearers were probably connected with the church of 
which Mr. Astley became pastor. In 1679 ^n Astley 
united with Thomas Jolly, Thomas Whitaker, of Leeds, 
and Josiah Holdsworth, of Heckmondwike, all professed 
Independents, in conference with Oliver Heywood and 
others to compose differences between Richard White- 
hurst, minister of the church in Bradford-dale, and some 
of his congregation (August 6th). 

When the Earl of Plymouth became Governor of Hull 
(1682), and sought to suppress nonconformist meetings, 
Mr. Astley, being warned, narrowly escaped apprehen- 
sion ; whilst Mr. Charles, the Presbyterian minister, was 
arrested and committed to prison. Thoresby heard him 
preach at Hull, October nth, 1691. During the seventeen 
years he was pastor there he received 232 persons into 
church-fellowship. In the winter of 1695 he declined in 
health, and continued wasting until April 4th, when he 
finished his earthly course, and his remains were 
interred at Drypool. 

In his long weakness his patience and resignation were 
remarkable. He was very laborious in his ministerial 
work, and shunned no opportunity of winning souls to 
Christ. He would frequently mix what tended to edifica- 
tion with his common discourse, which usually consisted 
of what was pleasant and what was profitable. His people 
were very dear to him, and his longing after their salva- 
tion earnest and pressing. His anxieties on their behalf 
had no small influence on the wearing away both of his 
body and the vigour of his mind. He was a man " mighty 



MINISTERS EJECTED OR SILENCED ELSEWHERE. 175 

in the Scriptures," to which the natural strength of his 
memory, confirmed by daily exercise, did very effectively 
contribute. His preaching was scriptural and experi- 
mental, and very much suited to the comforting of the 
afflicted and raising the dejected, as Mr. Charles was to 
the awakening of the secure ; so that in these two Hull 
had a Barnabas and a Boanerges alternately labouring 
among them to promote their eternal welfare. Dagger 
Lane Chapel, Hull, was built for Mr. Astley's successor, 
Jeremiah Gill, in 1698. It still exists, but is turned to 
secular uses ; its endowment being transferred to the 
Presbyterian church. A secession in 1768 built a chapel 
in Blanket Row, subsequently removed to Fish Street, 
and now represented by the Memorial Church, Princes 
Avenue. 

2. ASPINWALL, William, B.A., ejected from the Vicarage 
of Mattersey, Notts. ; and afterwards resident at 
Thumscoe, near Darfield. 

He was educated at Magdalen College, Cambridge; 
B.A., 1655 ; ordained at St. Marie's, Nottingham, being 
preacher of the Word at Maghull, Lanes., and at 
Mattersey. He married here the widow of one of his 
parishioners, Gamaliel Lloyd, and "being connected 
with the Nevilles of that place he was also connected 
with the family of Rodes, of Great Houghton, in the 
parish of Darfield " (Hunter), 

After his ejection in 1662 he took a farm at Thurnscoe, 
where he continued some years; Jonathan Grant and 
Mark Tricket, ejected ministers, residing in the same 
place. In 1667 Oliver Heywopd preached with him at 
the house of Mr. Strangeways, in Lancashire; he had 
licence as a Presbyterian to preach in the house of 
Richard Burchell, at Winwick, April 27th, 1672 ; and 
died at an advanced age in Lancashire. He was never 
minister at Cockermouth, as supposed by Palmer ; but 
John Atkinson, minister of Cockermouth (1701-32), wrote 
of him as follows : " I sat under his ministry [at Winwick] 
and had frequent advantage for conversing with him 



176 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

freely. He removed to us from a dissenting congregation 
in the bottom of Lancashire. He was an eminent 
preacher and an excellent expositor ; and his death 
was greatly lamented. He was dearly beloved of 
his people, both for his affectionate ministering among 
them and his abundantly obliging behaviour, for he 
was courteous and communicative to all." He was the 
author of " A Discourse of the Principal Points touching 
Baptism," 1659. 

3. BAXTER, Nathaniel, M.A. (1634-1697), resided and 
preached at Sheffield, after his ejection from the 
Vicarage of St. Michael's-upon-Wyre, Lancashire. 

He was born at Astle, near Chelford, Cheshire ; 
educated at Jesus College, Cambridge; admitted 1653, 
M.A. 1660. On leaving the University he lived for some 
time with Henry Newcome, M.A., minister of the 
Collegiate Church, Manchester, that he might be further 
fitted for the work of the ministry, and occasionally 
preached for Mr. Angier, of Denton ; and through the 
instrumentality of Isaac Ambrose, of Garstang, he was 
settled at St. Michael-le-Wyres. 

After his ejectment he became chaplain to Sir William 
Middleton, of Aldwark Hall, Ecclesfield, near Sheffield.* 
While here he was invited by Mr. Pegg, the proprietor 
of Beauchief Abbey, in Derbyshire, to preach in the un- 
occupied chapel there ; and this he did without molesta- 
tion for seventeen years, being allowed by Mr. Pegg, so 
long as that gentleman lived, sixteen pounds per annum 
for his services. With his wife's fortune he purchased a 
small estate in the neighbourhood and resided there. 
At length, for the sake of the education of his children, 
he removed to Sheffield, three miles from the Abbey, 
whilst still continuing to preach there every Lord's day. 

* Sir William Middleton was presented (1666) at the Archdeacon's 
visitation for not coming to the parish church ; he afterwards lived at 
Belsay Castle, Northumberland, where his chaplain was James Calvert, 
ejected from Topcliffe, near Thirsk. His son, Sir John, married Frances 
Lambert, of Calton Hall (grand-daughter of Major-General Lambert). 



MINISTERS EJECTED OR SILENCED ELSEWHERE. 177 

On the death of Mr. Pegg in 1682, his son, Mr. Strelly 
Pegg, alarmed at the penalties with which he was now 
threatened for encouraging nonconformity on his estate, 
requested Mr. Baxter to desist from preaching. When 
James II. issued his Declaration of Liberty in 1687, the 
young squire invited his father's chaplain to return and 
offered him £ 30 a year for his pains. But he declined 
to do so, saying that he could now exercise his ministry 
without reading the Common Prayer as he had previously 
done. The young gentleman offered to provide him with 
a reader ; and although Mr. Baxter did not feel free to 
fall in with this arrangement he retained the esteem of 
Mr. Pegg, who left him a handsome legacy on account of 
"his pious and charitable service at Beauchief Abbey." 

Mr. Baxter did not afterwards undertake the pastorate 
of a congregation, but often preached either at some 
neighbouring meeting-house or at some private house, as 
Major Taylor's, at Wallingwells, or Mr. Rich's, at Bull 
House, Penistone. On April 10th, 1684, he and Oliver 
Heywood spent a day of solemn fasting and prayer at 
Mrs. Rich's. After the decease of Mr. Bloom, in 1686, 
he regularly preached for some years at Attercliffe; 
and died in September, 1697, aged 65. " In the Journal 
of my ancestor, William Bagshaw, generally designated 
the Apostle of the Peak, on 16 September, 1697, he 
says that he was told of the death of the Rev. Nathaniel 
Baxter, of Attercliffe ; adding, 'Tis near forty years since 
I heard him preach at Manchester ; I remember his 
applying to Christ that passage of Jonah cast into the 
sea. He was employed near Ambrose, of Garstang, 
who, as I heard, drew him to his length (or shortness) 
in the use of the Liturgy. They were both turned 
out." (J. E. Bailey's Papers : Manchester Classis, iii. 
413, Cheetham Society.) 

He was a true Nathaniel. His sense of religion was 
early, and became habitual, lively and persevering. He 
was both personally and relatively good and virtuous. 
His pulpit gifts and performances were very acceptable ; 
he was fervent in prayer and affectionate in preaching. 



178 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY, 

He had five sons, four of whom he brought up for the 
ministry. Samuel, the eldest, educated by Frankland, 
was a nonconformist minister at Ipswich, Suffolk, and 
died July 19th, 1740, aged 70 : Nathaniel died early ; he 
lived to go through his studies and compose a sermon, 
which he never preached : Thomas was assistant to Dr. 
Col ton at York : and Benjamin, minister at Nottingham. 

4. BENDLOWS, Thomas, M.A. ( -1707), resided near 

Ripon, after his ejectment at Mitford, Northumber- 
land. 

He was probably born at Sutton Holgrave, near 
Ripon ; his father and grandfather being of the same 
name and place. He graduated B.A. from Sidney 
Sussex College, Cambridge : and was incorporated M.A. 
nth July, 1654. 

After his ejectment he became a Barrister-at-law, and 
was a Justice of the Peace. He was court keeper under 
Philip, Lord Wharton, and one of the original trustees 
of his Bible Charity, being described in the deed as " of 
Howgrave, Yorkshire, Esquire " (1692). Howgrave is a 
small village between Ripon and Boroughbridge. " Mr. 
Benlows, the lawyer, near Boroughbridge, died February 
23rd, 1706-7 " (North. Reg.). 

A certificate was signed on a presentation ot 
Christopher Hutchinson to be lecturer at Pocklington, 
February 23rd, 1659, by " Thomas Benlowe's of Scruton" 
(?) Sutton, near Ripon. 

" 1647, June 1st, Thomas Bendlowes, son and heir of 
Thomas Bendlowes, of Sutton Holgrave, co. York, gent. 

1669, April 27th, Thomas Bendlowes, son and heir of 
Thomas Bendlowes, of Sutton Hograve, co. York, Esq." 
(Foster's Gray's Inn Admissions). 

5. BRISCOE, Michael (1619-1685), often preached in York- 

shire, both before and after his ejection at Walmsley, 
Lancashire. 

He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin ; was at 
one time chaplain to Cromwell's regiment of foot in 



MINISTERS EJECTED OR SILENCED ELSEWHERE. 179 

Scotland (Parliamentary Note Book I., 96, Cheetham 
Society) ; and settled at Walmsley chapel in the parish 
of Turton, near Bolton, in 1649. Being an Independent 
his appointment was not acceptable to the Presby- 
terian classes which had been set up in Lancashire; 
and they proceeded to deal with him in a very high- 
handed way, pressing for a Justice's warrant against 
him, and finally in June, 1649, inhibiting him " till he 
appear and give satisfaction." On August 2nd it was 
ordered by the House of Commons that his case be 
referred to the Committee for Plundered Ministers 
(Journals VI., 273) ; which probably prevented further 
interference. He was appointed by that committee 
June 5th, 1650, to preach a weekly lecture at Bolton, 
with an allowance of £50 per annum, and on February 
14th, 1651, to perform a similar service at Blackburn ; 
but he declined to go to Liverpool because of his 
engagement at Walmsley. He is mentioned by Joseph 
Lister in his autobiography as about this time preaching 
on an Exercise day at the parish church at Halifax. 
The subject of his sermon was " The Day of Visitation," 
and his words, says Lister, fell upon me like a thunder- 
bolt. On the 5th of December, 1652, in reply to a 
communication received from the Congregational church 
at Altham, of which Thomas Jolly was pastor, seeking 
" the right hand of fellowship" with a sister church, 
Mr. Briscoe wrote on behalf of the church at Walms- 
ley, stating that before they could give a decisive 
answer they u would premise a few things," viz. : 

1. That they could not judge it according to rule for a pastor 
to accept a call to be pastor from any other than the Church whom 
he is to be over ; every voluntary relation being founded in the 
mutual consent of parties related. 

2. We also cannot judge it according to a right rule for any 
number of persons to join themselves together and enter into 
church relation without calling in the assistance and desiring the 
presence of neighbouring churches; that no one may have reason 
to upbraid them but to witness of the truth. 

3. They also wanted a third thing, viz., a confession of their 
faith, judging that every particular society should be founded in 



180 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

such a confession as is Scriptural, because heresies abound. (Note 
Book of the Rev. Thomas Jolly, Chetham Society, 1894, P- I2 5)- 

These matters were satisfactorily arranged ; and the 
two churches, which were, with that at Manchester, the 
most definitely Congregational in the county, continued 
in very friendly relations (Note Book, p. 127). Just 
before the Act of Uniformity came into operation we 
find Mr. Briscoe meeting at Sowerby (July 5th, 1662) 
with several Independent ministers and others, doubtless 
for consultation on the course which they should 
pursue. The ministers were Mr. Christopher Marshall, 
of Woodchurch, Mr. Smallwood, of Idle, Mr. Jolly, Mr. 
Christopher Marsden, of East Ardsley, Mr. Samuel 
Eaton, of Dukinfield, and Mr. Henry Roote, of Sowerby. 
"All Phanatique ministers." Information of the meeting 
was given to the King's secretary, and a commission was 
appointed to examine the matter ; but no serious results 
followed. 

After his ejection Mr. Briscoe went to reside at 
Toxteth Park, Liverpool, where licences were granted to 
him and Thomas Crompton (1672, May 8th) for a 
meeting house, at which they preached on alternate 
Sundays. Adam Martindale refers to him as his " fellow 
prisoner" (Diar. p. 236), and as "thoroughly Congrega- 
tional." He died September 4th, 1685, aged 66. " In the 
4th of the 7th m,," says Jolly, "my worthy dear 
brother (in the ministry), Mr. Michael Briscoe, departed 
out of this life ; it was a heavy blow and a sad breach, 
not only upon me but upon all these parts and on all 
the church of God, especially at this time, his abilities 
and interests being so considerable." He was a good 
scholar and a fine orator ; his sermons were judicious, 
but his voice was low, which was more than compen- 
sated for by his pleasing delivery. He had a son 
William, born at Tarporly, Cheshire, admitted to St. 
John's College, Cambridge, in 1701. 

6. CHARLES, Samuel, M.A. (1633-1693), was ejected from 
the Vicarage of Mickleover, Derbyshire, and was after- 
wards minister at Hull, 



MINISTERS EJECTED OR SILENCED ELSEWHERE. 181 

He was born at Chesterfield, September 6th, 1633 ; 
educated at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge ; ordained 
at Kniveton, August 22nd, 1655 ; afterwards resided in 
the family of Sir John Gell at Hopton; and was pre- 
sented by Sir John Curzon to Mickleover, where his 
ministrations were affectionate, judicious and successful. 
These he continued till his ejection by the Act of 
Uniformity. 

He viewed conformity in such a light that he could 
not yield to it without doing such violence to his 
conscience as to express his persuasion that if he had 
conformed he could not have been saved ; and he 
observed the day of his ejection from his living as a 
Fast all his life after. 

He remarked : "It was said of Abraham that he 
went out not knowing he went ; I am sure I went out 
not knowing whither I should go." 

He preached for some time at Belper, whence after 
the Declaration of Indulgence in 1672 he removed to 
Hull. Here a congregation had grown out of the 
labours of John Shawe, M.A., ejected from Holy Trinity 
church, and had licence for " a new built meeting 
house in Blackfriars by Presbyterians," August 
10th, 1672. Joseph Wilson, ejected from Beverley, had 
also a licence as a general Presbyterian teacher at 
Newland, near Hull, June 10th, and in the house of 
Richard Barnes (July 25th). Mr. Charles lived at 
Mytton-gate. When the Earl of Plymouth was ap- 
pointed governor of Hull and came to the town in 1682 
he sent for the Mayor and Aldermen and urged them 
with great vehemence to suppress the meetings of 
Dissenters, threatening them with the loss of their 
charter if they did not. Mr. Charles and Mr. Astley, 
the Independent minister, were immediately sent for. 
The latter escaped, having been warned ; but Mr. Charles 
was apprehended and brought before them. He de- 
fended himself in a spirited but somewhat exasperating 
address (February 2nd, 1682), which is printed in 
Calamy; and was committed to prison for six months. 



182 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

After he was set at liberty he continued labouring 
among his people to the end of his life. 

He was an excellent scholar, well skilled in the 
Oriental languages, and a great historian ; an accurate, 
lively and successful preacher ; a prudent economist ; 
of a warm and courageous temper ; and a zealous 
reprover of reigning vices. He enjoyed firm health till 
overtaken by the students' diseases, the stone and 
stranguary ; which he bore with invincible patience, and 
of which he died December 23rd, 1693, " with great 
peace and comfort, yea with assurance and triumph." 

7. COATES, Samuel, M. A. (1617-1684), was born at Rawdon, 
in the parish of Guiseley, near Leeds; ejected from 
the Rectory of Bridgford near Nottingham; and 
afterwards resided at Rawdon. 

He was brought up by his uncle, Mr. Coates, at Not- 
tingham ; educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, 
B.A. 1637, M.A. 1641 ; and married a daughter of Mr, 
Vincent, of Bainborough Grange. 

After his ejection he removed to Wath-upon-Dearne, 
where he had licence as a Presbyterian teacher at his 
own house (June 15th, 1672), and whence he removed to 
Rawdon, where he had a good estate, in 1679. His 
wife died here, " had been long melancholy in a palsey ; 
buried at Guiseley, March 20th, 1683 " (North. Reg.). 
He was often visited by Heywood both at Wath and 
Rawdon, and preached occasionally at various places. 
Having gone on a visit to his son-in-law, Mr. Bagshaw, 
in Derbyshire, he fell into a palsy on Lord's day, May 
nth, 1684, and died soon afterwards, aged 67. 

He was a profound scholar, a solid judicious divine, 
who preached substantial sermons, but had an un- 
pleasant stammering in his delivery. He was a pious 
man and full of tenderness to a melancholy wife. His 
name was precious in the neighbourhood for his labours, 
piety and charity. 

He had a son at Katharine Hall, Cambridge, who 
gave Heywood, February 26th, 1679, a lamentable 



MINISTERS EJECTED OR SILENCED ELSEWHERE. 183 

account of his tutor, Mr. Echard (Diar. II. 258). Samuel 
Coates was ordained at Mansfield, Notts., September 
28th, 1681 (II. 202). 

8. COOKE, Robert, was ejected at Mony Ash, Derbyshire, 

and preached at Bvodsworth, near Doncaster. 

On his ejection he came to reside at Brodsworth, 
where he had licence for a Presbyterian meeting in the 
house of Elizabeth Wentworth (June 10th, 1692). At 
the Doncaster Sessions, 1690, Brodsworth Hall was 
recorded, on his petition, as a meeting-place for 
Protestant Dissenters (Diar., Wentworth ; Yorks. 
Diar., Surtees Soc, p. 5). 

9. CRESWICK, James, B.D. (1617-1692), was born at 

Sheffield, and, after his ejection from the Rectory of 
Freshwater, Hants., resided at Beaghall, near 
Pontefract. 

He was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, of 
which he was Fellow. He is mentioned as tutor in 1644 
and 1653 ; and was presented by his College to the 
living of Freshwater, vacant by the death of Cardell 
Goodman. 

After his ejection in 1662 he continued to preach in 
the Parish Church, conceiving himself justified in doing 
so, as he was yet Fellow of St. John's, which gave him 
the privilege of preaching in any church or chapel ; but 
the doors were shut against him. He suffered less than 
many of his brethren, for he had a good fortune, and with 
part of it he purchased the Manor of Beaghall or 
Beal-hall, in the Parish of Kellington, about six miles 
from Pontefract, an estate worth £300 a year. Here he 
was accustomed to preach privately to "a poor and 
ignorant people." He was a man of great abilities, well 
skilled in the learned languages, though his eyes were 
sometimes so affected as to make him incapable of using 
notes. He was a man of great piety and of very 
exemplary patience under the tormenting pains of the 



1 84 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

stone. His daughter was married to Mr. John Farrar, 
of the Wood, in the parish of Halifax. He died in 
January, 1692 (buried January 20th), aged 75. A 
posthumous tract by him, entitled, " Advice to an Only 
Son," was printed by Oliver Heywood. He also 
prepared for the press another tract concerning " Man's 
Fall, and his Recovery by Christ." 

10. DURANT, Robert (1607-1678), was ejected from the 
Vicarage of Crowle, in Lincolnshire, and preached in 

Sheffield. 

He was third son of Mr. Durant, of an ancient family, 
and an eminent minister in London. He was of good 
parts and had a liberal education ; the learned languages, 
as also the French, were very familiar to him ; in his 
younger days he travelled much, and visited many of 
the West Indian Islands. 

After his ejection at Crowle he retained for the people 
among whom he had laboured a very tender affection to 
his dying day. He removed to Redness, where he buried 
his only son, and preached in private till 1664; when 
being on a journey with Mr. John Ryther, another 
ejected minister, they were both seized on the road and 
sent to York Castle, but nothing could be laid to their 
charge and they were soon released. While in the 
Castle he became acquainted with Mr. Thomas 
Woolhouse, of Glapwell, in Derbyshire, a great supporter 
of godly ministers, and then also a prisoner for conscience 
sake; who, upon the death of James Fisher (1667), 
minister at Sheffield, recommended him to the congre- 
gation, to which, after sufficient trial, he received an 
invitation in 1669. His first sermon, preparatory to the 
administration of the Lord's Supper, was preached 
November 17th, 1669. He had licence to preach in the 
house of Fisher as a Congregationalist (1672). When 
times were more favourable the congregation increased, 
and erected a more convenient place of worship. 

Mr. Durant's behaviour was always that of a gentle- 
man, and few excelled him in the sweetness of humility 



MINISTERS EJECTED OR SILENCED ELSEWHERE. 185 

and courteousness. His style was scriptural and plain, 
and his delivery clear and affectionate. " He was 
fervent in prayer, unusually large in confession, and 
particular in thanksgiving. It was his common method 
on the Lord's day to spend the morning in expounding 
the Scriptures, wherein he discovered great skill, in the 
afternoon he preached on the doctrines of the Christian 
religion, and once every month he and his congregation 
kept a fast. In his visits he endeavoured by apt 
questions to discover how far his hearers profited under 
his ministry, and he often took leave with prayer. His 
self-denial and mortification of sin were visible to his 
nearest acquaintance ; his meekness and patience to all. 
His circumspection was such that envy itself could not 
charge him with anything blameworthy. He could never 
endure railing or backbiting, but exhorted all to love, 
Christian charity, and forbearance. He had an un- 
common ability in writing agreeable letters full of a 
Christian spirit, many of which were long treasured 
up." 

In January, 1678, he administered the Lord's Supper 
for the last time, when he concluded his exhortation with 
these words, " I tell you this, and remember it when I 
am dead and gone, the better any man is the more 
humble he is, the better he will think of others, and the 
lower thoughts he will have of himself." A little before 
his death, taking leave of a friend, he quoted Ps. xci. 16, 
and added, " The Lord made good his promise to me. 
He hath satisfied me with length of life, and he hath 
given me to see his salvation." He died greatly 
lamented, February 12th, 1678, aged 71, and was buried 
in the parish churchyard. When the report of his death 
was brought to Mr. John Lobley, the vicar of Sheffield 
(1663-1681), he expressed his esteem for him by saying, 
" And is the good man dead ? I am sorry for it. I am 
sorry for it ; he hath carried it so very well that I wish 
they may get one that will tread in his steps." Just a 
month before his death, a meeting-house called the New 
Hall was finished ; in 1681, Timothy Jolly (son of the 



186 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY- 

ejected minister, Thomas Jolly) became pastor, and in 
1700 a new chapel, Upper Chapel, was built in Norfolk 
Street. 

11. DARNTON, John, M.A. (1630-1680), was ejected from 
the Vicarage at Bedlington, Northumberland; and 
preached at West Tanfield, near Ripon. 

He was son of Richard Darnton, rector of West 
Tanfield, where he was born ; bred at Sedbergh, under 
Mr. Garthwaite; admitted to St. John's College, 
Cambridge, May 29th, 1647, pensioner; tutor, Mr. 
Pawson, aet. 17 j B.A. 1650, incorporated M.A. July 
nth, 1654. He ministered at Bedlington without 
having been ordained. 

After his ejection there he returned to West Tanfield, 
where his father had been buried February 16th, 1654, 
and began preaching there ; had licence for his own 
house as a Presbyterian (September 30th, 1672) ; and 
was ordained with others at Richard Mitchell's, Marton 
Scar in Craven, by Heywood and Frankland, July 10th, 
1678.* " His thesis was * Non datur omnibus gratia 
sufficiens ad conversionem' ; and he begged to deliver 
himself in English, which was permitted for the benefit 
of such as were present, and did pretty well ; though 
some of us were not so fully satisfied in his abilities, yet 
having testimonial of his pious conversation — Mr. 
Frankland having known him formerly in Northumber- 
land; he had preached above twenty years without 
ordination, though he produced testimonials of appro- 
bation by the commissioners for trial of ministers in 
these parts ; he solemnly confessed his fault and defect 
and had always sought ordination, had never baptized, 
&c. — upon encouraging grounds we entertained him. 
Then we required them to make a confession of their 
faith, which they did largely and distinctly." (Heywood's 
Diar. II. 196). He was buried at West Tanfield, July 
gth, 1680. 

* This was the first Nonconformist Ordination in Yorkshire. 



MINISTERS EJECTED OR SILENCED ELSEWHERE. 187 

12. DUNCANSON, James ( -1674), was ejected from 

Chatton, Northumberland, and subsequently preached 
at Selby. 

He was a very pious man, who was put into this living 
by the Commissioners in the time of the Long 
Parliament. 

Seeing the place much given to drunkenness he 
preached freely against that vice, for which he was shut 
out of his church by Captain Muschamp and Mr. 
Swinhoe, a Justice of the Peace. He thereupon preached 
in the churchyard, and in his sermon uttered these 
words: " I do not pretend to be a prophet, and yet I am 
verily persuaded that there are some hearing me this 
day who shall live to see these great men that have so 
violently opposed the preaching of the Gospel in this 
town not to have one foot or furrow of land in 
Northumberland." And his prediction was fulfilled. 
(Palmer III. 61.) 

He had licence as a Presbyterian for a meeting in his 
own house at Selby, May 29th, 1672. Afterwards he 
retired to Leeds, where he was kindly received by 
Richard Stretton, nonconformist minister of Mill Hill 
Chapel, at whose house he died, and was buried at the 
new church of St. John's, December 24th, 1674. 

13. FRANKLAND, Richard, M.A. (1630-1698), was ejected 

from the Vicarage of Bishop Auckland, Durham, and 
afterwards preached and kept an Academy at 
Rathniell, near Settle. 

He was son of John Frankland, and connected with 
the Franklands of Thirkleby, Yorks. (baronets from 
1611). He was born at Rathmell, a hamlet in the parish 
of Giggleswick in Craven, November 1st, 1630 ; educated 
at Giggleswick Grammar School, 1640-1648; admitted 
as minor pensionary of Christ's College, Cambridge, 
May 18th, 1648; B.A. 1651 ; M.A. 1655. 

Like Oliver Heywood he received lasting impressions 
from the preaching of Samuel Hammond, lecturer till 



188 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 



1652 at St. Giles's. He was a hard student, and took 
his degrees with distinction. 

He preached at Hexham, at Houghton-le-Spring, and 
at Lanchester, where he was ordained in the Presbyterian 
manner, September 14th, 1653 ; was chaplain in the 
family of Alderman James Brook, at Ellenthorp, near 
Boroughbridge ; and when assistant minister at Sedge- 
field, was put by Sir Arthur Hazelrigg into the vicarage 
of Bishop Auckland in 1659. Some post was designed 
for him in the College of Durham, for which Cromwell 
issued a patent, May 5th, 1657, but which was never 
fully established. At Bishop Auckland two of his 
children were born. 

After the Restoration he was one of the first to be 
attacked for his nonconformity. An attorney named 
Bowster demanded of him publicly before the congre- 
gation whether he intended to conform ; Frankland 
replied that it would be time enough to answer this 
question when the terms of conformity had been settled, 
and meantime he relied on the King's declaration 
(October 25th, 1660), dispensing with conformity. 
Bowster, with a neighbouring clergyman, got possession 
of the keys and locked Frankland out of the church. He 
indicted them for riot, but the case was dismissed at the 
Assizes for a technical flaw in the indictment. Dr. 
Cosin, the Bishop of Durham, now offered to institute 
Frankland and give him higher preferment if he would 
receive Episcopal ordination. He even proposed to 
ordain him conditionally, and so privately that the 
people might not know of it ; but to this he would not 
consent. By the Act of 1661 Frankland was confirmed 
in the possession of the living, but the Act of Uniformity 
in the following year ejected him. 

He then retired to Rathmell, where he had a small 
patrimony, and lived some years in privacy; and then 
had a license for his own house as a Presbyterian (1672). 
Before this he had begun to receive students, March 
3th, 1669-70. His first student was George, son of Sir 
Thomas Liddell, Bart., of Ravensworth Castle, Durham, 




RICHARD FRANKLAND, M.A. 
(From a portrait at Mansfield College, Oxford.) 



To face page 188. 



MINISTERS EJECTED OR SILENCED ELSEWHERE. 189 

whose family was distinguished for loyalty with Puritan 
leanings. The next were Anthony Proctor, April 7th, 
probably son of an ejected minister of the same name at 
Well, near Bedale; and Thomas Whitaker, July 6th, 
afterwards for thirty-four years Congregational minister 
at Leeds. Others followed, to the number of fifteen in 
four years ; of whom the most notable were Timothy 
Jollie, afterwards tutor of an academy at Attercliffe, and 
John Issot, a young ejected minister, who entered the 
family for improvement, and became Frankland's 
assistant. 

Some of his students were intended for the legal and 
others for the medical profession. His first divinity 
students belonged to the Independent denomination. 
The course of studies in this " Northern Academy " 
included logic, metaphysics, somatology, pneumatology, 
natural philosophy, divinity and chronology. The 
lectures were in Latin, and given entirely by Frankland 
himself until he had trained up others to assist him. 
The discipline of the house was strict, but Frankland 
gained the confidence of the students and maintained his 
authority with admirable temper. Those who wished to 
graduate went to Scotland, where they were promoted 
to a degree after one session's attendance. The non- 
conformist ministry in the north of England was chiefly 
recruited from this academy as the ejected gradually 
died out. 

Though not a taking preacher, Mr. Frankland's solid 
discourses gained for him an invitation from a congre- 
gation at Natland, near Kendal ; where dissenters held 
their meetings, the parochial chapel being in ruins. 
He moved there about May, 1674; the congregation 
increased, and he extended his labours to Kendal and 
elsewhere. He took part in the first nonconformist 
ordination in Yorkshire, which was held at Marton-in- 
Craven, July 10th, 1678. (Heywood : Diar. II. 196). 
For this he is said to have been excommunicated. 
During his nine years stay at Natland he received about 
seventy-seven students. Some of the most notable of 



igo YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

these were John and Eleazer Heywood, sons of Oliver 
Heywood, May 26th, 1674 ; John Billingsley, for sixteen 
years a prominent dissenting minister in London, 
October 5th, 1679; William Tong, the friend and 
biographer of Matthew Henry, March 2nd, 1681 ; Jabez 
and John Cay, the one a distinguished naturalist and 
the other an eminent lawyer, and compiler of the 
" Abridgment of the Statutes," June 18th, 1681 ; John 
Chorlton, assistant and successor to Henry Newcome, 
of Manchester, April 14th, 1682 ; and the two sons of 
the tutor, John and Richard, the first of whom died 
young, the other assisted his father, and died of small- 
pox at Attercliffe in 1689. 

With the renewal of persecution during the later years 
of Charles II., Frankland was again assailed. Pro- 
ceedings against him begun in the ecclesiastical court 
in May, 1681 ; he was excommunicated, but his friends 
obtained absolution for him. In 1683 he was compelled 
to leave Natland, as being within five miles of Kendal, a 
corporate town. He was then received into Carlton 
Hall, in the parish of Kirkley Malham, not far from 
Rathmell, the seat of John Lambert — son of the major- 
general — whose wife, Barbara Lister, was a great friend 
of the nonconformists. Here he only remained a few 
months, receiving four students, none of whom attained 
special distinction. 

Some time between July, 1683, and May, 1684, he again 
removed to Dawson Fold, near Crossthwaite, Westmore- 
land, just outside the five-mile radius from Kendal ; 
and the following year he retired to Hart Barrow, also 
called Hartleborough and Hall Burrow, near Cartmell 
Fell, just inside the Lancashire boundary, and so con- 
venient for escaping a writ for either county. At these 
two places he only received nine students altogether. 
After February 6th, 1685, no admissions are recorded for 
a year and nine months, and failing direct evidence it 
seems likely that the academy may have been temporarily 
discontinued. 

In the autumn of 1686 Frankland availed himself of 



MINISTERS EJECTED OR SILENCED ELSEWHERE. 191 

King James's Declaration, took out a fifty-shilling 
dispensation, and removed to Attercliffe, near Sheffield ; 
where he remained nearly three years, and received fifty- 
one students, of whom the following deserve mention : 
John Bayes, for fifty-two years minister in Leather Lane, 
London ; Jeremiah Gall, assistant to Timothy Jollie, at 
Sheffield, afterwards pastor at Hull ; Samuel Baxter, 
nearly forty years minister at Ipswich ; John Ashe, 
nephew of the celebrated William Bagshaw, " the Apostle 
of the Peak," and himself a distinguished minister in 
Derbyshire; Thomas Dickinson, successor of Oliver 
Heywood at Northowram ; and Sir Charles Duckinfield, 
Bart. 

He is thought to have left Attercliffe in consequence of 
the death of his son, which occurred May 4th, 1689. 
But it is possible he only designed a temporary 
residence there, as he had rebuilt or enlarged his house 
at Rathmell, where a stone may still be seen inscribed 
F However, he removed thither in July or August, 
1686. 1689, and remained there to the end of his life. 

During these last nine years he received no fewer than 
146 students — nearly as many as in the nineteen years 
preceding. A few of these demand recognition : — John 
Owen, his assistant, afterwards of Bronyclydwr, the 
only dissenting minister in Merioneth ; James Wood, of 
Chowbent, distinguished for his martial courage in 1745 ; 
John Taylor, of Swaledale ; William Benson, of Wake- 
field ; Ebenezer Roscow, probably a nephew of Lord 
Willoughby ; James Towers, Frankland's successor at 
Rathmell, afterwards at Tockholes ; James Clegg, M.D., 
of Chapel-en-le-Frith ; William Pendlebury, of Leeds ; 
John Evans, D.D., of London; Daniel Madock, of 
Uttoxeter; Thomas Benyon, M.D., of Shrewsbury; 
David Lowe, of Market Harborough, assistant to Dr. 
Doddridge ; John Towers, of Hopton. 

But during the whole time of Frankland's later 
residence at Rathmell, hardly a year passed without 
some fresh attempt being made by ecclesiastical 
authorities to put down his academy. For not answering 



1 92 YORKSHIRE P URITA NISM A ND EA RL Y NONCONFORMITY. 



a citation to the Archbishop's Court he was excom- 
municated ; but at the instance of Lord Wharton and 
Sir Thomas Rokeby, William III. ordered his absolution, 
which was read in Giggleswick Church. In 1691 there 
was a new alarm; and in 1692 the clergy of Craven 
petitioned the Archbishop, Dr. John Sharp, to suppress 
the academy. Sharp wrote to Tillotson for advice, saw 
Frankland at a confirmation at Skipton, and invited him 
to Bishopthorpe ; where with the help of a pipe of 
tobacco and a glass of good wine, a very friendly inter- 
view took place. (Letter from Frankland to Thoresby, 
November 6th, 1694.) In 1695 another indictment was 
issued against him, but it was quashed, no doubt owing 
to the influence of Sharp. In 1697 he was brought 
before the spiritual court, but the case was postponed. 
His troubles continued till the year of his death. 

Though not a popular preacher, his good sense, his 
piety, his humility, his zeal in the maintenance of truth 
gained for him very high respect. He was a man of 
considerable learning, an eminent tutor, and by his 
labours in training young men for the ministry he did 
more than any other person to promote the continuance 
and efficiency of nonconformist congregations in the 
north of England. 

His only publication, so far as is known, was a tract, 
entitled " Reflections on a Letter writ by a nameless 
author and on his bold reflections on the Trinity, to the 
Rev. clergy of both Universities. By Richard Frank- 
land. London : printed by A. and J. Churchill, and sold 
by R. Bentley, Bookseller in Halifax, 1697." Its argu- 
ments are scholastic and its style cumbrous and obscure ; 
and Hey wood very justly speaks of it as M able and 
uncouth " (See Joshua Wilson's " Historical Enquiry 
Concerning the . . . Opinions ... of the English 
Presbyterians"). 

His health began to break in 1697, when he suffered 
much from gravel ; and he died in the midst of his 
scholars on October 1st, 1698. He was buried four days 
later in Giggleswick Church, where an ornate marble 



MINISTERS EJECTED OR SILENCED ELSEWHERE. 193 

tablet has been placed to his memory. * The parish 
register of burials contains the following entry : — " 1698, 
Richardus Frankland de Rathmell cler. quinto die 
Octobri." It is followed by another : Maria, uxor 
Gulielmi Paley de Giggleswick " ; this is the grandmother 
of the celebrated Dr. Paley of the " Evidences." Frank- 
land's funeral sermon was preached by John Chorlton. 

The little congregation at Rathmell was for some years 
under the charge of John Towers ; but dispersed on his 
removal, about 1722. 

For a few months after Frankland's death efforts were 
made to obtain a tutor who would carry on the academy, 
but without success. In the following March (1699) Mr. 
John Chorlton " set up a teaching university learning in 
a great house in Manchester," and fourteen of the Rath- 
mell students entered there. Others completed their 
education under Timothy Jollie, at Attercliffe; others 
elsewhere. 

There is a portrait of Frankland in Dr. Williams's 
Library. He married Elizabeth Sanderson, of Hedley 
Hope, in the parish of Brancepeth, Durham. He had 
(at least) two sons ; John, born 1659, entered the 
academy May 3rd, 1678, " the strongest man of his age 
in and about Natland," died January, 1679 ; and 
Richard, baptized June 8th, 1668, entered the academy 
April 13th, 1680, and buried at Sheffield, May 4th, 1689 ; 
and three daughters, Barbery (named after Mrs. Lambert, 
of Colton), Elizabeth, and Margaret, who married Samuel 
Smith, of York, son of Joseph Smith, V.D.M. 

The following story is told by Henry Sampson (ejected 
from the rectory of Framlingham, Suffolk, in 1660), 
concerning a visit paid by Frankland to Charles II. t 

" Himself told me that he had a violent impulse upon his mind 
to go to the king; that he could neither study nor do anything else 
for several days, so that he took up a resolution that he would go 

* The tablet is a fac simile of that erected to John Lambert, before 
mentioned, in Kirkby Malham Church. There are other memorials of 
the Frankland family in Giggleswick Church porch. 

t Extracts from Sampson's " Day Book." British Museum. 
O 



194 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

to him. He acquainted some with it, who spent sometime in prayer, 
as himself also did at other times. He wrote down what he intended 
to say to him, thinking it too adventurous to speak to a king 
depending on the presence of mind he might then have. So he 
goes to the old earl of Manchester, lord chamberlain, who used him 
very friendly and desired him that he would bring him to speak to 
the king. The earl would fain have known what he would say to 
him, but he would not tell him. The earl appoints him a place to 
stand at which the king was to pass on his way to the council. 
When the king came out, * This man,' said the earl, ■ would speak 
to your majesty.' The king asked him, * Would you speak with 
me ' ? ' Yes,' said he, ■ but in private.' So the king stepped aside 
from the nobility that followed. Then said Mr. Frankland, ' The 
Eternal God whose I am and whom I serve commands you to 
reform your life, your family, your kingdom and the Church. If 
you do not, there are such judgments of God impending (at which 
words he grew pale and changed countenance) that may destroy 
both you and the kingdom.' 'I will,' saith the king, 'do what I 
can.' Mr. Frankland repeated this latter part and added, ' I know 
the wrath of a king is as the roaring of a lion, but for your sake I 
have taken up this speech and leave it with you.' The king passed 
away, saying, ' I thank you, sir,' and twice looking back before he 
went to the council chamber, said, ' I thank you, sir ; I thank you ' ; 
but he said and did not." 

The old college building at Rathmell still exists, but 
has been greatly altered ; in part demolished, and in part 
turned into cottages which occupy an enclosure known 
as College Fold. The following is an account given by 
John Cockin, minister at Holmfirth, in a letter written 
by him April 21st, 1821, of a visit paid by him to the 
place : 

'* Some years ago, when I was itinerating in Craven, I passed 
through a village, and saw ' Rathmell ' painted on a board. The 
name struck me, and ... I recollected it was the residence of Mr. 
Frankland, the tutor of the first dissenting tendency in England. I 
asked the first man I met if there were any remains of an old chapel 
in the place; ' No,' said he, ■ but there was once a college here.' I 
then enquired what person in the village was most likely to give me 
information about it. . . . At last I went to one family whose 
ancestors had resided within a stone's cast of Mr. Frankland's 
house for several centuries. They received me courteously, enter- 
tained me to dinner, shewed me the premises, and told me all the 
traditions of the place respecting ■ the old college.' It was an 
extensive establishment, bounded by a high wall, which enclosed 



MINISTERS EJECTED OR SILENCED ELSEWHERE. 195 

an acre of ground. Over the gate of the yard was a large bell, 
which rang at stated times to call the students up, and to summon 
them to family prayers, meals, &c. Some of the buildings have 
been taken down, and those which are still standing are converted 
into cottage houses. There was a long row of windows to the 
different studies, most of which are now walled up. . . . The 
kitchen was described to me as having been very large; and my 
guide told me that when she was a girl she had often hid herself in 
the oven in a game of ' hide and seek.' The garden and orchard 
were extensive, but are now converted into grass land. I could 
learn no anecdotes of the personal character of Mr. Frankland, or 
any of the students ; and all the traditions I heard related to the 
mischievous tricks which the young men played to the country 
people." 

A view of the buildings, as they now appear, is given 
in the Transactions of the Congregational Historical 
Society for September, 1906. A complete list of Frank- 
land's students may be found in J. H. Turner's edition 
of " Oliver Heywood's Diaries, &c," vol. 3, 1885. 

14. GRANT, Jonathan (1617-1681), was ejected from the 
Rectory of Flixborough, Lincolnshire; and preached 
at Thomscoe, Darfield, near Barnsley. 

He was born at Rotherham ; educated at Trinity 
College, Cambridge ; and was for a while assistant to 
William Styles, M.A., the Puritan vicar of Pontefract 
(afterwards of Hessle and Leeds) ; subsequently minister 
at Ashley, near Kidderminster, and present at the dis- 
putation on Baptism at Bewdley between Baxter and 
Tombes, which was much to his satisfaction — the rather 
as it was the means of effecting a change in the views of 
his wife, who had been made a convert by the Baptists. 
He had during the civil war been a prisoner in four 
different castles. 

After his ejection he retired to Thornscoe, and had 
licence for a meeting in his own house as a Presbyterian 
(1672). He also often preached at Great Houghton. 
He died in 1681, at the age of 64, of palsy, from which 
he had suffered about half a year. He was an active 
man, of fruitful abilities and good learning ; fit for any 
company or discourse, and an acceptable, useful preacher. 



196 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

Diodatus, son of Jonathan Grant and Obedience his wife, 
was buried at Thornscoe, June 7th, 1684. 

15. JOLLY, Thomas (1629-1703), was ejected from the 
Chapelry of Altham, in the parish of Whalley, 
Lancashire, and laboured much in the West Riding 
of Yorkshire. 

He was son of James Jolly, of Droylsden, afterwards 
of Manchester and of Chester ; who was a major in the 
Parliamentary army, a strong Independent, and under 
the Conventicle Act was apprehended and fined (July 
3rd, 1665) ; died November 7th, 1666, and was buried at 
St. Michael's Church, Chester. Major Jolly had three 
sons, James, Thomas, and John ; the last-named was 
educated at Trinity College, Dublin, silenced by the 
Act of Uniformity, and died at Gorton, June 17th, 
1682 (his son John was one of Frankland's students, 
successor of his uncle Thomas at Wymondhouses, and 
died at Oakenshaw, Clayton-le-Moors, Whalley, in 1725 ; 
his brother Edward was also a Frankland's student). 

Thomas Jolly was born at Droylsden, Lancashire, 
September 14th, 1629, baptized at Gorton Chapel, and 
in his sixteenth year was sent to Trinity College, 
Cambridge, where he remained between three and four 
years, and had Oliver Heywood as his fellow-student 
and bosom friend. He was recommended by T. Hill, of 
Magdalen, as studious and piously affected. 

On leaving Cambridge at 31, he was appointed to 
Altham, with "the unanimous consent of the people," 
September 16th, 1649 ; Mr. Giles having just previously 
removed to Coley, in the parish of Halifax. The chapelry 
consisted of the township of Altham and part of Clayton- 
le-Moors. His salary was only £10 per annum, paid by 
the owner of the rectorial tithes of Whalley ; but in 1650 
£30 was ordered by the Committee of the County, and 
a further sum of £50 by the Committee for Plundered 
Ministers. 

He was married in 1651, and his wife died in 1653 ; 
again married in March, 1654, anc * was again a widower 



MINISTERS EJECTED OR SILENCED ELSEWHERE. 197 



in October. In May of this year he went to London, and 
was approved by the Commissioners for the Approbation 
of Public Preachers. In 1655 he married for the third 
time, and in the following year was once more a widower, 
losing his wife on the birth of his son Timothy. In 1657 
he was at Wakefield, consulting with other ministers as 
to the communion of churches ; and in 1658 at the 
general meeting of the Congregational Churches at the 
Savoy, and preached before the assembly. In 1659 he 
declined a call from Whalley. 

At the Restoration his troubles began. In November, 

1660, a warrant was issued against him by three Deputy- 
Lieutenants, and he was taken to Preston and charged 
with sedition. The Oath of Supremacy having been put 
to him, he was discharged. 

On February 15th, 1661, he was again arrested, and 
kept for some time in custody. 

On March 15th of the same year, Captain Nicholas 
Bannister, of Altham, " violently shut him out" of the 
chapel, and a few days after he was cited to appear at 
the Bishop's Court at Chester to answer various charges. 

His chief persecutors were : Rev. John Lightfoote, 
rector of Bury, Mr. Moor, vicar of Whalley, and Richard 
Walmsley, of Dunkenhalgh, a papist ; this last shut him 
out of Langho Chapel, where he occasionally preached. 

On November nth, at Chester, he was charged for 
refusing to use the Book of Common Prayer ; suit shortly 
afterwards removed, but the Prelate died November 29th, 

1661. One of the witnesses (November 28th) said that 
for three years past he had a separate congregation of 
his own, which he called " the Society." Mr. Bannister 
got the key, and would not admit him, but he got a new 
key, and preached ever since. 

On July 25th, 1662, Captain Bannister and Ensign 
John Grimshaw came " full of ale " to cite him again to 
Chester ; and on August 17th these and Captain Alex. 
Nowell brought an order of suspension, and forced him 
out of the Chapel. Bannister died March 16th, 1664-5, 
and Moor soon afterwards. 



198 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

Jolly now, after thirteen years' labour, broke up his 
house, and "with his three young children were putt to 
wander for a considerable time without any certain 
dwelling place." Encouraged by Mr. Newcome, he 
preached to the Anabaptists. 

On October 9th, 1663, he was taken as a " sojourner " 
at Healey by Captain Parker and others, who set him 
behind one of the soldiers on horseback, without boots 
or hat. He was taken to Burnley and Bury, and 
examined by Colonel Nowell and Mr. Holt, of Castleton, 
concerning certain private meetings, left to lie all night 
on wet straw, and next morning taken to Skipton, and 
after being kept prisoner some time, sent back to Healey. 
On November 4th he was again arrested, taken by 
troopers to York, and detained at the Marshall's for a 
month, on the information of Ralph Oates ; but no fault 
being found "in the matter of the Kingdom" [Farnley 
Wood Plot], he was sent home, to the great confusion 
of his adversaries. 

On February 12th, 1664-5, at the house of Richard 
Ingham, he was surprised by Captain Parker and soldiers, 
and taken before Justices Starkie and Braddyll : who 
committed him to Lancaster Castle, where with Robert 
Whittaker and John Bailey he was imprisoned for three 
months. On November 23rd he was again arrested, and 
taken before Justice Rigby, and bound to appear if 
required. 

The Five Mile Act subjected him to three years' 
banishment from Altham; so in 1667 he purchased 
Wymondhouses, at the foot of Pendle Hill, removed 
his goods thereto, and commenced to gather a society, 
preaching at first to two women only. 

His meetings here were discovered, and he was once 
or twice arrested. On April 25th, 1669, he was taken by 
Colonel Nowell at Abraham Howarth's house at Altham, 
and committed by Colonel Kirby to Lancaster Castle, 
under the Five Mile Act, for refusing to take the pre- 
scribed oath. The justices at Preston refused to release 
him, and he spent the greater part of that year in prison. 



MINISTERS EJECTED OR SILENCED ELSEWHERE. 199 

In February, 1671-2, Oliver Heywood preached for 
him. He obtained a licence under the Indulgence in 
that year; but nevertheless was frequently interfered 
with. He and Howarth were indicted and put to much 
expense in August ; he was again indicted by Nowell in 
October, which cost him £8; and on December 5th a 
warrant was served on him. The following year he was 
seized at Slade by Nowell, who seems to have been 
actuated by some personal enmity against him. In 
1674 his licence was cancelled; and on June 14th 
Captain Nowell came and presented a pistol, and issued 
warrants for a fine on his goods. 

Before this he had ventured on a fourth marriage, and 
once more was left a widower on June 8th, 1675. In this 
year he visited London, and was kindly received by Dr. 
Owen. 

In 1676 he laboured much in Craven. In 1677 or early 
in 1678 he preached privately at Whalley, and was repre- 
sented to Justice Parker as " an enemy to Christ and a 
traitor to the king." In November, 1678, he was pre- 
sented, with others, and notes " a charge of £7 for my 
past, beside the sequestration of two parts of my estate, 
which may fallow." On November 12th, 1679, new 
warrants were issued against him for absence from 
church. In the course of this year he visited Kipping, 
and is said on one occasion to have preached for four 
hours. 

After this he seems to have been left about four years 
in peace ; then in 1684 he was apprehended by order of 
the Lord Chief Justice, and brought before him at 
Preston, where he was required to find sureties in £200 
each : Jeffreys wanted to make it £2,000. At the assizes 
his own bond for £100 was accepted. 

His troubles ceased with the issue of King James's 
Declaration of Liberty; on May 15th, 1688, the founda- 
tion of a meeting-house was laid, which was completed 
by July 14th. The ruins of it were still to be seen in 
1869, but have now quite disappeared. 

He was one of those who united in exorcising one 



200 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

Richard Dugdale, a supposed Demoniac, at Surey, near 
Whalley, in 1699 or 1690 ; and some years afterwards 
printed a tract, " A Vindication of the Surey Demoniack 
as no Impostor." 

He took part in a meeting at Rathmell, in 1690, about 
Union between the Presbyterians and Independents ; 
and joined the "Happy Union," which was effected in 

1693. He was accustomed to say that " things would 
succeed in Civil matters according to the. advance made 
in Reformation and Reconciliation." On September 4th, 

1694, there was a general meeting of the United Brethren 
in Manchester; Mr. Jolly and Mr. Newcome were ap- 
pointed to manage the correspondence, and Mr. Jolly to 
preach at the next meeting. He last visited his youngest 
son at Sheffield in 1700 ; and died, aged 73, on March 
14th, 1702-3, or by another account, April 16th, 1703, 
and was buried at Whalley. 

By his first wife he had two sons ; Thomas, who died 
at the age of 19 while preparing for the ministry, and 
Samuel, a doctor at Sheffield. By his third wife he had 
one son, Timothy, born at Altham in 1656 ; who studied 
under Frankland, gained distinction as tutor at Atter- 
cliffe and pastor at Sheffield ; and died in 1714. 

16. NAYLOR, Peter (1636-1690), was ejected from Hoghton 
Chapel, Lancashire ; and afterwards preached at 
Pontefract and Wakefield. 

He was son of John Naylor, of Wigan, Lancashire, 
draper ; admitted to St. John's College, Cambridge, 
April 23rd, 1655, aet. 19. 

After his ejection he often preached for Mr. Swift at 
the Episcopal Chapel of Penistone ; and had licence to 
preach in the house of Boniface Cooper, Pontefract, as a 
Presbyterian (1672). 

About the same time he began to preach at Alver- 
thorpe, near Wakefield, where he succeeded Joshua 
Kirby, of Flanshaw Hall, who had been ejected from his 
lectureship in the parish church, and died in 1676. 

In 1689 the house of Peter Naylor at Wakefield was 



MINISTERS EJECTED OR SILENCED ELSEWHERE. 201 



certified for Protestant Dissenters by John Ray and Dan 
Sykes. At the same time the house of Mrs. Kirby was 
certified by Cornelius Clarke and William Hawdon 
(ejected minister who died in 1699). 

Naylor continued his useful ministry until his death in 
1690, aged 54. He was buried at Wakefield, June 2nd ; 
his funeral being attended by two coaches and twelve 
ministers. Mr. Whitaker, of Leeds, preached his funeral 
sermon from Zechariah i. 5. His son, James Naylor, was 
for a short time assistant to Mr. Nesbitt, of Hare Court, 
London ; but died of consumption, July 23rd, 1708, aged 
291, and was buried in Bunhill Fields. 

17. OGDEN, Samuel, B.A. (1626-1697), was ejected from the 
Vicarage of Mackworth, Derbyshire ; and afterwards 
resided for a while in Yorkshire. 

He was born at Oldham ; educated at Christ's College, 
Cambridge ; first settled at Buxton ; ordained by the 
classis of Wirksworth in 1653 ; presented to Fairfield 
Chapel 1654, and to the vicarage of Mackworth 
1657-62. 

After his ejection he carried on a boarding-school until 
the Five Mile Act was passed, when he went into York- 
shire, where he remained for some time. 

He subsequently taught a school at Derby, and when 
an action was commenced against him for doing so, Sir 
John Gell, of Hopton, gave him the Free School of 
Wirksworth in 1686 ; where he continued until his death, 
May 25th, 1697, aged 70. 

He was a great scholar and a staunch nonconformist. 
" To conform," he wrote, " is not only to assert by 
practice, but to assent in express terms to all the dubious 
articles of faith, all the imperfect forms of prayer, all the 
erroneous translations of Scripture, all the unaccountable 
rubrics and prescriptions of the Common Prayer Book, 
together with the questionable ceremonies used ; all 
which have been the scruples, scandals, and stumbling 
stone of most good men of England for many scores of 
years." 



202 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

A descendant of his, Samuel Ogden, M.A., D.D. 
(1716-1778), was Master of Halifax Grammar School, and 
a popular preacher at Cambridge. 



18. OLIVER, Thomas, is believed to have been an ejected 

minister, though the place of his ejection is unknown ; 
he ministered in Yorkshire many years. 

In 1672 he had licence as a Congregationalist for the 
house of John Mares, at Newlands in Yorkshire. There 
was a Newlands near Hull, which now forms part of 
the city. 

The name given in the licence is Thomas, and he was 
undoubtedly the same as is said by Palmer to have been 
" chaplain to the pious and excellent Lady NorclifT." She 
was the widow of Sir Thomas NorclirT, and resided at 
Langton Hall, near Malton. She was a member and 
generous supporter of the Congregational Church at Hull 
(afterwards meeting in Dagger Lane). Of her it is 
recorded, " She was pious, liberal and bountiful to 
all ; she gave £50 per annum to the pastor of Langton, 
where she lived, and £50 per annum to the pastor 
of the Congregational Church at Hull, where she 
was in fellowship, and £20 per annum to Mr. Oliver, her 
chaplain, that preached in her house at Langton Hall, 
where he lived, and kept him his horse, put his children 
to school, &c." 

[Palmer says of William Oliver (in addition to what has 
been already quoted), that he was ejected at Glapthorn, 
Northamptonshire. After his ejection he lived at 
Fotheringay, in that county. He was a little man, full of 
spirit, a good scholar and a useful preacher. He died 
July 10th, 1686, aged 78. There is no other Oliver in 
Calamy.] 

19. PARISH, , was ejected at Darlington, Durham, 

and afterwards lived in Yorkshire. 

Information respecting him is very defective. 



MINISTERS EJECTED OR SILENCED ELSEWHERE. 203 

20. ROGERS, John, M.A. (1610-1680), was ejected from the 
Rectory of Croglin, Cumberland ; and afterwards 
preached at Lartington, Yorkshire, North Riding. 

He was the eldest son of John Rogers, minister of 
Chalcombe, Northamptonshire ; born there April 25th, 
1610, educated at Wadham College, Oxford, was for some 
time preacher at Middleton Cheyney, Northamptonshire, 
and afterwards at Leigh, in Kent. He was then sent by 
order of Parliament (in 1644) to Barnard Castle, Durham, 
where he laboured with great diligence and success. 

When he came to Barnard Castle he made out a list of 
the number of souls in his parish, which were about 2,000. 
He took an exact account who of them were persons of 
knowledge, and who were ignorant; who were fit or 
unfit for the Lord's table, &c. Those who were ignorant 
he conversed much with, gave them good books, till he 
thought them qualified for that sacred solemnity. 

He took great care of poor children that they might not 
grow up in ignorance and idleness. He was a zealous 
observer of the Lord's day and was much given t© 
hospitality. He had some difficulty with the Quakers, but 
his conduct toward them was so engaging that even many 
of them would not forbear giving him a good word. 

He was much respected by Sir Harry Vane, of Raby 
Castle, in that neighbourhood ; and he afterwards visited 
his son, Sir Harry the younger, when imprisoned before 
his execution by the vindictive Cavaliers after the 
Restoration. On March 2nd, 1660, he removed to 
Croglin, on the presentation of Philip, Lord Wharton. 

After his ejection by the Act of Uniformity he con- 
tinued his ministry. He had licence as a general 
Presbyterian teacher at Lartington, near Barnard Castle 
(May 13th, 1672) ; also for his own house there (Sep- 
tember 5th), and for the house of Robert Nicholson at 
Darlington (August 12th). When the licences were with- 
drawn he preached at a house at Startforth, near Barnard 
Castle, which belonged to Ambrose Barnes, the Diarist, 
who was his brother-in-law. On one Lord's day he 



20 4 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

held service there, and on another in Teesdale or Wear- 
dale, among the workers in the lead mines. He often 
preached on the weekdays also. Many a troublesome 
journey did he take amongst those poor people, through 
deep snows and over high mountains, when the roads 
were bad and the cold severe. But he made nothing of 
the fatigue, through his love to souls ; especially as he 
was encouraged by the eagerness of these people to hear 
the Word. Only £10 a year was raised for him in this 
wide field of labour; but his own estate placed him 
beyond the reach of want. He published a little 
Catechism, and two letters to Mr. R. Wilson on the 
death of his daughter, whose life was published under the 
title of " The Virgin Saint." He was of a catholic spirit 
and a great enemy to uncharitable principles or practices. 
He had always a good correspondence with the neigh- 
bouring clergy, and was treated very respectfully by Dr. 
Stern, Archbishop of York, Dr. Rainbow, Bishop of 
Carlisle, and the Bishop of Durham, on the last of whom 
he often waited. The old Lord Crew, with whom he was 
acquainted in his younger days, always received him with 
great respect. He died at Startford, November 28th, 
1680, and his funeral sermon was preached by Mr. Brokill, 
the vicar of Barnard Castle. His wife, Grace, was 
buried at this place February 5th, 1677-8. 

His son, Timothy Rogers, author of a discourse on 
" Trouble of Mind," was a nonconformist minister at 
Wantage, Berkshire, and subsequently at Old Jewry, 
London. A remarkable story was told by him concerning 
his father, who was on one occasion brought up before 
Sir Richard Cradock, a Justice distinguished by his great 
severity towards nonconformists. Whilst waiting in the 
hall he had the good fortune to gain the favour of Sir 
Richard's grandchild, a little girl of six or seven years of 
age, who had been much indulged and usually exhibited a 
very wilful temper. When summoned a second time the 
Justice made out the mittimus to commit him to prison. 
But meanwhile the child had discovered the reason of 
Mr. Rogers being again at the Hall, and went to her 



MINISTERS EJECTED OR SILENCED ELSEWHERE. 205 

grandfather and said : " If you send him and his friends 
to jail I'll drown myself in the pond as soon as they are 
gone ; I will, indeed." The old gentleman knew the 
violent temper of the child, and fearing the result, desisted 
from his purpose, and Mr. Rogers, laying his hand on the 
head of the child and praying for God's blessing upon 
her, went away at liberty. 

Many years afterwards Timothy Rogers told this story 
when dining in company with several others at the house 
of an excellent Christian lady in London, Mrs. Tooly ; 
who declared that she was herself the little girl who had 
secured the release of his father and gave an account of 
her subsequent life. She inherited a large fortune, but 
after pursuing the round of fashionable pleasures, suffered 
from " troubles of mind," and having consulted a doctor 
at Bath, was recommended by him to read a certain 
remarkable book — which proved to be no other than the 
New Testament. She promised to read it, which she 
had never done before ; and was led by several remark- 
able occurences to hear a sermon by Mr. Shower at Old 
Jewry, on the text, " Return unto thy rest, O my soul, for 
the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee," which led to 
her conversion. 

21. STRETTON, Richard M.A. (1632-1712), was ejected at 
Petworth, 1660, silenced in London, 1662, and after- 
wards chaplain to Lord Fairfax at Nun Appleton, in the 
parish of Bilbrough. 

He was born at Claybrook, Leicestershire; educated 
at New College, Oxford, B.A. 1655, M.A. 1658; 
ordained at Arundel, October 26th, 1658, and assistant to 
Dr. Cheynel at Petworth, Sussex, till November, 1660, 
when he came to London. He was introduced by James 
Nalton to Lord Fairfax, and was his domestic chaplain 
until the death of his lordship (November 12th, 1671) ; 
who bequeathed to him all his tithes at Bilbrough and 
Sandwath during his life, " provided he doe supply the 
office of a preachinge minister there, or procure one 
to doe itt" (Markham, p. 444). While residing at 



206 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

Nun Appleton he became acquainted with the barrister, 
Thomas Rokeby, afterwards judge and knighted. He 
was also on friendly terms with Dr. Tillotson (after- 
wards Archbishop), who insisted upon his preaching at 
St. Lawrence's, London, for which he was rebuked by 
the Bishop. 

He had licence as a Presbyterian teacher at the house 
of Frances Richardson at Cawood (May 29th, 1672) ; and 
shortly afterwards, was chosen minister at the newly- 
built Presbyterian meeting-house at Leeds. In 1677 he 
removed to London and ministered to a congregation 
there. In 1683, for refusing the Oxford oath, he was 
imprisoned in Newgate for six months ; and on returning 
to his house he was seized the very next morning by the 
city marshal, his papers secured, and he himself carried 
before the King and Council, who dismissed him and 
sent him before the Lord Mayor. He lived till after the 
passing of the Toleration Act, and on Dr. Annesley's 
death, took charge of the Morning Lecture. He died 
July 3rd, 1712, and was buried in Bunhill Fields, 
Matthew Henry preaching his funeral sermon. 

He delighted in doing good, and was a zealous 
promoter of works of charity. He was very helpful to his 
poor country brethren, and was a principal agent in 
setting up and supporting the fund for assisting them 
and poor country congregations. His son Richard was a 
nonconformist minister at Marden, Berks. (Wilson 
Diss., Ch. iii. 130, iv. 72.) 

22. TRICKETT (or Triggot), Mark, B.A., was ejected 
from the Rectory of Gate Burton, Lincolnshire ; 
and preached at Great Houghton and elsewhere in 
Yorkshire. 

He was educated at Magdalen College, Cambridge; 
A.B., 1657. " 1659, May : Mr. Mark Trichit and Prudence 
Green, widow, married at Holy Trinity, Hull." After his 
ejection he resided with Mr. Aspenwall, at Thornscoe, and 
often preached at Great Houghton. 

In 1672 he had licence as a Congregationalist to teach 



MINISTERS EJECTED OR SILENCED ELSEWHERE, 207 



in Kirksandall Hall, four miles from Doncaster, where 
also John Hobson had a similar licence. 

For preaching and praying at Tanshelf, Pontefract, he 
was committed to York Castle, April 25th, 1682 ; 
where he was visited by Thoresby, and remained for 
some time. He was living in 1687, and visited Timothy 
Roote when the latter conformed and became vicar of 
Howden ; but the date of his death is not recorded. 
He was of a brisk, active temper, and his preaching was 
much admired. (See Northowram Register, p. 135, and 
Palmer III. 476.) 

23. WARD, Noah (1640- 1699), was silenced when at the 
University, and afterwards minister near York. 

He was born at Derby ; and after having been two 
years at the University the Act of Uniformity came into 
operation, and he returned to his native place. He became 
usher in a school there, then tutor in a gentleman's 
family, and on recovering from a severe illness kept a 
school at Ashley. , 

He was ordained to the ministry at Sheffield, the 
testimonial to his ordination being signed by Mr. Bur- 
beck, Mr. Prime and Mr. John Wood. He then be- 
came chaplain to Sir John Wentworth, into whose 
family he married. On Sir John's death his widow 
(daughter of Lady Norcliff, of Langton Hall), was 
married to Lord Winchekea, who dismissed him. He 
removed to Little Askam, near York, where he had 
licence as a Presbyteriam teacher in his own house 
(June 15th, 1672). He also preached at several other 
places, and was an itinerant preacher all his life. 
When Mr. Ralph Ward's health began to fail he con- 
ducted the services in his congregation on every third 
Sunday, and at the lecture. He frequently preached at 
Ellenthorp, and Selby; and after Mr. Ward's death, 
very often at Healaugh. His death took place May 
22nd, 1669, at the age of 59. 

He was sometimes reduced to great straits, and 
suffered much from persecution. He managed all his 



208 YORKSHIRE P URITA NISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

domestic affairs with great frugality, so that neither he 
nor his wanted food or raiment, and contentment made 
their little enough. Had he not lived by faith he had 
died of his discouragements. He had a deep sense of 
the sins of his times and of the general decay of piety, 
which made " the terrors of the Lord " usually fill up 
the greater part of his sermons. He studied not lan- 
guage, but plain convincing truths. Almost his last 
words were, " God will redeem me from the power of 
the grave." 

24. WARD, Ralph, M.A. (1629-1691), was ejected from the 
Vicarage of Hartburn, Northumberland, in 1650, and 
afterwards preached at York. 

He was born at Denby, in the parish of Penistone, 
Yorks. ; educated at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, 
under the tuition of Mr. Elias Pawson ; and graduated 
A.B. 1650, A.M. 1654. He attributed his conversion to 
the ministry of Mr. Samuel Hammond (a native of York), 
then minister at St. Giles's. 

He began his ministry at Denby Chapel ; and being 
recommended by Mr. Hammond (then settled at Bishops 
Wearmouth) as chaplain to Colonel Fenwick, whose 
regiment remained in garrison at Leith, in Scotland, 
after the battle of Dunbar, he began to preach at Leith 
in August, 1651, and was much respected there. 

In the following year, being on a visit to friends in 
Yorkshire, he was persuaded not to return to Scotland, 
and was fixed at Wolsingham, Durham. He was 
ordained September 14th, 1653, at the Church of St. 
John's, Newcastle; the testimonial whereof was as 
follows : 

" Forasmuch as Mr. Ralph Ward hath addressed himself to the 
Classical Presbytery within the town and county of Newcastle- 
upon-Tyne (according to the order of both Houses of Parliament of 
August 28th, 1648, for the ordination of ministers by the Classical 
Presbytery), desiring to be ordained a Preaching Presbyter, for that 
he is called in the work of the ministry in Wolsingham Church in 
the county of Durham, and hath exhibited unto the Presbytery a 
sufficient testimonial now remaining in their custody of his 



MINISTERS EJECTED OR SILENCED ELSEWHERE. 209 

compleat age, of his unblameable life and conversation, of his dili- 
gence and proficiency in his studies, and of his fair and direct call 
to the forementioned place : 

We, the ministers of the said Presbytery, have by appointment 
thereof examined him according to the tenor of the said ordinance, 
and finding him to be duly qualified and gifted for that holy office 
and employment (no just exception being made against his ordina- 
tion or admission) have approved him ; and accordingly in the Church 
of St. John's, in Newcastle, upon the day and year hereafter ex- 
pressed, have proceeded solemnly to set him apart to the office of a 
Preaching Presbyter and work of the ministry with fasting and 
prayer and imposition of hands : And do hereby (so far as con- 
cerneth us) actually admit him into the said charge there to 
perform all the offices and duties of a faithful minister of Jesus 
Christ. 

As witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names this 
14th day of September, An. Dom. 1653. 

John Bewick, Moderator. 
Rd. Prideaux, Wm. Coley, 

Anthony Lapthorn, John Marshe, 
Robt. Plaisance, Wm. Henderson, 

Henry Lever, Thomas Hubbart." 

After his settlement he visited both Oxford and Cam- 
bridge, and commenced Master of Arts of both Universi- 
ties ; and returning to Wolsingham, where he had a bene- 
fice of about £150 per annum, applied himself vigorously 
to his work. He laboured hard on the Lord's days and 
went on the week days from house to house to enquire 
after the fruit of his pains. The poorer sort he invited 
to his house once or twice a week to be catechised and 
instructed, promising them victuals for their bodies if 
they would mind the good of their souls. But to his 
sorrow he found they soon grew weary ; and as for those 
of his hearers who were in better circumstances, though 
they carried it very respectfully to him, they generally 
declined his personal applications. 

On which account, together with some other difficulties 
he met with, he readily accepted an invitation to the 
sequestered living of Hartburn ; where his encourage- 
ment as to income was smaller, but his prospect of 
success great. Here he did much service in a little 
time, 
p 



210 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

At the Restoration the former incumbent came back to 
the living, and he retired to Newcastle, where he kept 
school, having many gentlemen's sons for his scholars. 
He also preached occasionally for Mr. Hammond and 

Mr. Durant. 

The Act of Uniformity silenced his preaching, and 
prevented him from continuing his school ; and after a 
brief retirement he became domestic chaplain to Sir 
John Hewley, of York, and continued in that city, with 
one interruption, to the end of his life. 

By the Five Mile Act he was driven away for a time, 
but on returning he lived with his own family, preaching 
privately without disturbance from 1666 to 1672. 

Under the Declaration of Indulgence he obtained a 
licence as an Independent teacher at the house of Brian 
Dawson, in Ousegate, York (June 10th, 1672). At the 
same time the house of Andrew Taylor, in Micklegate, 
was licensed for an Independent meeting ; and the house 
of Lady Watson, at Saviour-gate, for the same purpose. 
Peter Williams was also licensed as a general Presby- 
terian preacher at his own house at York (May 21st), 
and similarly James Calvert (ejected at Topcliffe) in his 
own house. 

He now began his public ministry in York, and soon 
had as flourishing congregation as most in England. 
Beginning with prayer, reading the Scripture and ex- 
pounding, he sung a psalm, prayed and preached and 
concluded with prayer. In his expositions he finished the 
whole Epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians, and the 
Decalogue. He preached twice every Lord's Day, and 
had a lecture every fortnight, in which he preached over 
the Parable of the Ten Virgins, the 8th of Romans, 
and 14th chapter of St. John's Gospel. He ad- 
ministered the Lord's Supper every six weeks, on 
which occasions he went through great part of Solomon's 
Song. For many years he repeated the Lord's Day 
sermons every Tuesday morning. He had days of 
conference with his people, and of answering questions 
in divinity. He had also set times for philosophical 



MINISTERS EJECTED OR SILENCED ELSEWHERE. 211 

disputations with some young scholars who lived in the 
city ; besides his diligence in catechising youth and 
calling parents and masters to that work, and visiting 
the sick and resolving the doubts of many. He would 
also often go into the country and preach lectures on the 
week days. All this was in him a labour of love, and 
his success much added to his pleasure in it. 

" The Devil would not suffer him, however, to live 
without disturbance." Before the Indulgence he was 
put into the Spiritual Court by the churchwarden of his 
parish, and was excommunicated for not frequenting the 
church and not receiving the sacrament there. The 
excommunication was renewed from year to year ; it 
was driven to a capias, which coming out every term 
either confined him to his house or obliged him to be 
very cautious in going forth. 

Toward the end of the reign of Charles II., when the 
persecutions of nonconformists reached its climax, he 
suffered greatly ; and he stood almost alone among the 
ministers of York in his endurance. Calvert died in 
1679 and Peter Williams in 1680, just before the storm 
fell. 

In 1682 he was fined for a conventicle, once £20 and a 
second time £40. When holding a meeting at the house of 
Mrs. Rokeby, in Micklegate Without, on Sunday morning 
at 9 o'clock, the place was surprised by a magistrate and 
constables, the names of 32 persons were taken down as 
being present, along with divers others, and an informa- 
tion was laid against them for holding a tumultuous 
meeting. Some of them, it was reported, "they found 
in lofts above the garretts, and Mr. Ward and Mr. Taylor 
in a closett locked up, and the rest in several rooms." 
Bail was given for their appearance at the Assizes ; when 
they were tried before the infamous Judge Jeffreys, who 
came at this time on the Northern Circuit (June 22nd, 
1684) ■. In a manuscript written at the time and still 
preserved, it is recorded : " Mr. Ward and Mr. Taylor and 
twelve more are committed, called rogues, traitors, 
whiggs, &c, by the Chief Justice ; he tells them the 



212 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

King's pleasure is to root out all phanaticks through the 
land." Mr. Ward, it is said, behaved himself before him 
with great sedateness and prudence. (John Hall's 
MSS.) 

For the so-called Riot he was fined £50 and left a 
prisoner. A capias was also served upon him in open 
Court by the Ecclesiastical officers. A Mittimus was 
afterwards sent to the gaoler from the Sheriffs of the city 
to detain him upon the account of £20 fines due to the 
Exchequer for not rendering his body within six days 
after Proclamation, though neither the Bishop's signifi- 
cavit nor the King's writ gave any addition to his name, 
the omission of which rendered them informal. 

He and Mr. Taylor, " that public-spirited merchant 
who opened his doors for private meetings in the straitest 
times," were confined in the prison on Ousebridge, "the 
cells of which would almost have rivalled the notorious 
Black Hole of Calcutta ; air, light, and ventilation were 
absent, and the waters of the river rushed in when they 
were above their usual level" (Canon Raine). They 
petitioned the Judge at the next Assize, but in vain. 
Mr. Ward, however, was not hindered from preaching on 
the Lord's day to many who went out of the city to hear 
him, which alleviated his bonds. 

Charles II. died February 6th, 1685, when they had 
been more than six months in the hold on Ousebridge. 
After the ascension of James II. Mr. Taylor was set at 
liberty by the King's special order, without paying any 
fine to the King or Ecclesiastical Court, having been 
illegally prosecuted. The date of this release is uncertain, 
as Heywood visited Taylor and Ward in Ousebridge 
gaol on December 24th, 1685, after his own twelve 
months' confinement in York Castle. 

But the great charges the Court alleged they had been 
at kept Mr. Ward still prisoner. At length, however, 
the matter was compromised, so that upon paying £40, 
they gave him his absolution March 8th, 1685-6, and 
he received his quietus out of the Exchequer in June, 
1686, exactly two years after his committal to prison. 



MINISTERS EJECTED OR SILENCED ELSEWHERE. 213 

On being released from his imprisonment he returned 
to his work with the same sincerity and desires to do 
good, but not with the same strength of body. His long 
confinement had impaired his health, and he found it 
necessary to obtain the assistance of Mr. Noah Ward in 
his public services every third Sunday. 

He suffered much from asthma, and his strength rapidly 
declined. He met death " neither with the insensibility 
of a Stoic nor with the carelessness and heat of a Roman, 
but with the reverential fear and tried faith of a Christian." 
He told a pious lady by whom he had been much respected, 
when she came to pay her last visit to him, " I hope I 
can say that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with 
fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, I have had my 
conversation in the world." He finished his course 
March 13th, 1691, aged 62. 

" He was a very thinking person and one of a solid 
and discerning judgment, but was not lavish of his words. 
He was a substantial divine, well acquainted with 
systematical, polemical, and casuistical divinity, and 
particularly with the Popish, Arminian, and Socinian 
controversies. 

" He was of a bold spirit and undaunted in his work, 
and he had prudence and meekness to govern his courage, 
that while it kept him true to his own conscience made 
him not justly offensive to others. He was eminently 
pious; all his sermons were preached over twice, first 
to himself and then to others. 

" His motto was Vive ut vivas. 

" He was much in prayer, was not afraid of his own 
company, was delighted with soliloquies, and kept his 
heart with all diligence. He was excellent in all relations. 
His family was a well-ordered church, and his friendship 
was safe, edifying, and honourable. In a word all the 
worthy characters of a Gospel minister met in him He 
deserved quite other treatment than he met with from 
an unkind world, but his reward is above." A long letter 
written by him to his people during his enforced absence 
from them is printed in Palmer III. 70. 



214 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

25. WHEAT, Jeremiah ( -1667), was silenced in 

Derbyshire. 
He was preaching in Derbyshire, but in no fixed living, 
when the Act of Uniformity passed ; and became chaplain 
to Sir John Bright, of Badsworth, Yorks. He was a 
good scholar and an eminently pious man. He died 
most happily in the Lord about the year 1667. 



MINISTERS BORN IN YORKSHIRE, EJECTED ELSEWHERE. 215 



III. 

MINISTERS BORN IN YORKSHIRE, AND 
EJECTED OR SILENCED ELSEWHERE. 

1. BAYES, Samuel, a native of Yorkshire, was ejected 

from the Vicarage of Grendon, Northamptonshire. 

He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, 
ejected in Derbyshire at the Restoration ; and at 
Grendon by the Act of Uniformity. He afterwards 
lived privately at Manchester and there died. 

His son, Joshua Bayes (1671-1746), was a pupil of 
Frankland and an eminent nonconformist minister in 
London. He was ordained, with Calamy and several 
others, at Little St. Helen's in 1604 (Palmer III. 49). 

He was minister at Leather Lane 1723, lecturer at 
Salters' Hall 1732, and completed Epistle to the Galatians 
in Matthew Henry's unfinished Commentary. 

2. CLARKSON, David, B.D. (1622-1686), was a native of 

Bradford, and ejected from the Curacy of Mortlake, 
Surrey. 

He was son of Robert Clarkson, who resided at 
Fairgap (a small street which begins at the east side 
of the Pack Horse Inn), in Westgate, Bradford. The 
Manor of Bradford was conveyed by the Corporation of 
London to John Okell, vicar ; William Lister, of Man- 
ningham, gentleman ; Robert Clarkson and Joshua Cooke, 
of Bradford, yeomen. Robert Clarkson had three 
children, viz. (1) William, rector of Adel, near Leeds, 
who died 1660, and was succeeded by his nephew, 
Thomas Sharp, M.A., who was ejected there in 1660 ; 
(2) Mary, who was married to John Sharp, of Little 
Horton, a noted Parliamentarian, and became the 



216 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

_____ ■> 

mother of Thomas Sharp before mentioned, and 
Abraham Sharp, the mathematician ; and (3) David 
Clarkson, who was born in February, 1622, and baptized 
March 3rd of the same year. 

Having received his early education at the Bradford 
Grammar School, he entered Clare Hall, Cambridge, 
in 1640. On returning home to visit his parents in 
June, 1642, he was shut up there during the siege by 
the Earl of Newcastle, and having with his brother- 
in-law, John Sharp, assisted Sir Thomas Fairfax and 
his men in breaking through the enemy's leaguer, was 
beaten back and afterwards taken prisoner. Joseph 
Lister, an apprentice of Sharp, in his Autobiography 
gives an amusing account of how Clarkson was cap- 
tured. But he was soon afterwards released and 
returned to college, and commenced B.A., 1644; M.A., 
1648. 

In consequence of the opposition of the University to 
the Parliament, about 200 masters and fellows of the 
colleges were expelled (February 24th, 1644). Among 
the seven fellows of Clare Hall, Dr. Gunning was re- 
moved, and Clarkson was appointed to his place May 
5th, 1645, by warrant of the Earl of Manchester, and 
approved by the Westminster Assembly of Divines; 
the eminent Ralph Cudworth being the new master. 
There were at this time two brothers, collegians at 
Clare Hall, Henry and Francis Holcroft, sons of Sir 
Henry Holcroft, Knight, of West Ham, Essex, with 
whom Clarkson was on intimate terms, and whose 
sister Elizabeth he subsequently married (165 1). In 
April 29th, 1647, being tutor of the college, he received 
as his pupil John Tillotson, of Sowerby (afterwards 
Archbishop of Canterbury); who succeeded him on his 
resignation of the fellowship about November, 1651, and 
to whose care he consigned the tuition of his nephew, 
Thomas Sharp and other scholars. 

He was appointed to the curacy of Mortlake in 1655, 
and continued there for many years. In 1661 he preached 
at " the morning exercises " held in St. Giles's Church, 




'To face fage 216. 



MINISTERS BORN IN YORKSHIRE, EJECTED ELSEWHERE. 217 

Cripplegate. After his ejection he gave himself up to 
reading and meditation, shifting from one place to 
another, wherever quiet and obscurity might be found, 
till the times suffered him to appear openly. He often 
preached at private meetings in association with Richard 
Byfield, M.A., Edmund Moore, M.A., and Robert Park. 

When the Declaration of Indulgence was issued he 
wrote to Matthew Shepherd, in Clement's Lane, requesting 
him to apply for a licence for a meeting-house, stating 
" the house belongs to John Beamish, in Mortlake, 
Surrey, and it is much desired the house may be for the 
use of such who are of the persuasion both Presbyterian 
and Independent, for the meeting consists of both, as 
you know, and both are at the charge ; and to appro- 
priate it to either will be accounted a prejudice to the 
others" (April 25th, 1672). 

He took an active part in the religious controversies 
of the times, and in the fourth series of " Morning 
Exercises." 

He was chosen co-pastor with Dr. Owen at Leadenhall 
Street in July, 1682, in whom he found a congenial friend ; 
and on the death of Owen, August 24th 1683, he 
preached his funeral sermon from Phil. iii. 21. He 
himself died June 4th, 1686, and his funeral sermon was 
preached by Dr. Bates, who pronounced a fine eulogium 
on his character. Howe said of him : " He lived here as 
one who was more akin to that other world than this ; 
and who had no other business here but to help in 
making it better ; " and Baxter wrote : " He was a divine 
of extraordinary worth for solid judgment, healing, 
moderate principles, acquaintance with the fathers, great 
ministerial abilities, and a godly upright life." 

By his will, dated June 13th (the day before his death) , 
and witnessed by Henry Sampson and Edward Hulse, 
he gave his "land that is at Idele (Idle) and Eshall 
(Esholt) " to his wife, and after her death the proceeds 
derived from the sale thereof to be equally divided 
among his children, &c, of whom there were five, viz. 
(1) Rebecca, the wife of Mr. Combe ; (2) Matthew, who 



218 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 



went to America about 1689 and died there in 1702 ; (3) 
Robert ; (4) Gertrude and (5) Catherine, both of whom 
remained unmarried. His widow survived him about 
fifteen years. 

His works were very numerous, the principal are as 
follows : 

1676. " The Practical Divinity of the Romanists discovered to 
be Destructive of Christianity and Men's Souls." 

1681. " No Evidence for Diocesan Churches, or any Bishops 

without the Choice and Consent of the People in the 
Primitive Times ; in answer to Dr. Stillingfleet." 

1682. M Diocesan Churches not yet discovered in the Primitive 

Times." 
The following are Posthumous : 
11 Primitive Episcopacy " (1688). 
" A Discourse Concerning Liturgies" (1689). 
" Sermons (31) (1696), with Portrait." 
" Select Works of the Reverend and learned David 
Clarkson " were published by the Wycliffe Society in 
1846 ; and three volumes of his Practical Works are 
included in Nichol's "Series of Puritan Divines," 1864. 
His portrait, by White, is in Hailstone's Collection. 

3. CROMWELL, John, M.A., was born at Barmby Moor, 
near Pocklington, and after his ejection at Clayworth, 
Notts., returned to his native place. 

He was educated at Magdalen College, Cambridge, 
where he was very studious and serious. He commenced 
B.A. 1652, M.A. 1656, and was ordained by his uncle, 
James Fisher, of Sheffield, in 1657. He was a tall, comely 
person, of a robust constitution, a very popular preacher, 
and in principle a Congregationalist. 

After his ejection he was imprisoned with many others 
at Newark on account of what was called the Yorkshire 
Plot (Farnley Wood, 1663) ; but nothing appeared 
against him except that his name was Cromwell. He 
remained some years in prison without a trial, and as 
a consequence his health became seriously affected. In 
1672 he preached at Norwich, but was much persecuted 
there. He then removed for a change of air to his native 



MINISTERS BORN IN YORKSHIRE, EJECTED ELSEWHERE. 219 

place, where he had a good estate, but it was too late for 
him to receive any benefit therefrom ; and he there found 
a place "where the wicked cease from troubling and the 
weary are at rest." He died in April, 1685. Several of 
his sermons were published : (1) Discourse of Spiritual 
Blessings ; (2) Four Sermons on Eph. i. 3 ; (3) On God's 
Owning the Least Degrees of Grace ; (4) Two Sermons 
on Amos ix. 10. 

[In the account given of Martha Hatfield, of Laughton- 
en-le-Morthen, it is said that her speeches were taken 
down by a scholar, by name Master John Cromwell, one 
related to Master Hatfield's family.] 

4. DRAKE, Michael, was born at Pikeley, near Allerton, in 
the parish of Bradford, and ejected at Pickworth, 
Lincolnshire. 

He was son of John Drake, of Pikeley ; educated at a 
private school at Halifax, Mr. Maude, master ; admitted 
to St. John's College, Cambridge, November 26th, 1639, 
aet. 17 (having been half a year at Magdalen College, 
Cambridge, to which he was admitted in June) ; succeeded 
Mr. Abdy at Lincoln, where he was many years a 
laborious preacher ; presented to the rectory of Pick- 
worth by Sir William Armyn about 1645, where he 
succeeded Mr. Weld (who was subsequently ejected from 
Bildeston, Suffolk), and was a faithful pastor. While 
here he was one of the Tuesday lecturers at Grantham. 

Some months before Bartholomew's Day he removed 
from Pickworth, and resided at Fulbeck, two miles from 
Lincoln ; where Sir Francis Fane, Knight of the Bath, 
a Royalist, treated him in his poverty with great 
respect. Whilst residing here he occasionally preached 
in the house of John Disney, Esq., in the parish of St. 
Peter's at Gowts, Lincoln, and in 1672 removed to 
Lincoln and ministered regularly to a congregation,which, 
however, could raise for him only £15 per annum. 

In the time of the Monmouth rebellion (1685) he was 
apprehended for supposed complicity therein, along with 
Mr. Wright, of Lessingham, and Mr. Brittaine, of 



220 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

Brocklesbury, Lines., and committed to Grantham gaol. 
They were to be sent to Hull, but on Monmouth's defeat 
they were released. He was a man of excellent character 
and a good preacher. None could say a word against him. 
His son Joshua was presented in 1692, by Daniel 
Disney, Esq., to the vicarage of Swinderby, and was 
succeeded by his son Joshua, who died there in 1765. 

5. GRANDORGE, Isaac, M.A. (1630- ), was a native of 

Mart on in Craven, and ejected from the Rectory of 
Burbrook, Essex, in 1660. 

He was son of Christopher Grandorge, of Marton in 
Craven ; he was educated at Giggleswick School, under 
Mr. Lucas, admitted to St. John's College, Cambridge, 
sizar (tutor and surety, Mr. Winterburn), May 26th, 
1646, aet. 16. 

He was put into the sequestered rectory of Burbrook, 
and at the Restoration gave way to the former incumbent. 
After his ejection he lived at Black Notley. He was an 
excellent man and a great scholar ; a very prudent 
person and a judicious preacher. 

6. GREENWOOD, Daniel, D.D. (1605 ?-i673), was a native 

of Sowerby, Halifax, and ejected from the Principalship 
of Brazenose College, Oxford, in 1660. 

He was son of Richard Greenwood, of Sowerby, where 
he was born, and brother of John Greenwood, of 
Redbrink (see Roote). He was admitted to Lincoln 
College, Oxford ; matriculated April 30th, 1624, set. 19, 
B.A. January 26th, 1626-7 ; fellow of Brazenose College, 
M.A. June 19th, 1629, B.D. 1640, rector of Chestleton, 
Oxfordshire, 1640-2, D.D. July 24th 1649; Principal of 
the College 1648-60, on the resignation of Dr. Reynolds, 
appointed Vice-Chancellor of the University, October 
5th, 1650, and after two years removed by Cromwell for 
his disaffection to the Government and replaced by 
Dr. John Owen (who continued till 1657). He was a 
strong Presbyterian, a profound scholar and divine, a 
severe and good governor. 



MINISTERS BORN IN YORKSHIRE, EJECTED ELSEWHERE. 221 

After his ejection at the Restoration he lived privately, 
and, in the latter part of his life, with his nephew, Daniel 
Greenwood (son of John Greenwood, M.A., of Sowerby), 
rector of Steeple Aston, Oxfordshire (1653), who 
conformed and died there January 29th, 1673, aged 71 
(? 68). His son died in 1679. 

7. HAMMOND Samuel, D.D. ( -1665), was a native of 

York, and ejected from the Lectureship of St. Nicholas, 
Newcastle, in 1660. 

" He was a butcher's son of York, but raised the 
meanness of his birth by the eminence of his quali- 
fications." He was educated at King's College, 
Cambridge, where he was servitor to Dr. S. Collins, 
Regius Professor of Divinity. By the interest of the 
Earl of Manchester he obtained a Fellowship of 
Magdalen College, and was a happy instrument in 
reforming and raising that society. He had many 
pupils, several of whom were afterwards of great repute, 
both in Church and State. He was very popular as a 
preacher at St. Giles's Church, and his ministry was the 
means of the conversion of some hundreds of scholars. 
It was generally allowed that there was not a more 
successful minister at Cambridge since the time of 
Mr. Perkins. 

Sir Arthur Haselrigge engaged him as his chaplain 
when he went into the North. He became minister at 
Bishopswearmouth, 1645. Thence he was invited to 
Dr. Jenison's church at St. Nicholas, Newcastle, 
1652-60, to assist him when disabled, with a view to 
his succeeding him, but he continued only lecturer till 
the Restoration. On November 6th, 1652, there was an 
order of the Common Council to appoint Mr. Hammond 
to preach at St. Nicholas on Sunday forenoon, and to 
lecture on Thursdays, with a salary of £150. He was 
also appointed Master of St. Mary Magdalene's Hospital, 
February 24th, 1653. A. Barnes mentions him as 
colleague with Mr. Weld at Gateshead. 

It is said that at the Restoration, when questioned by 



222 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

Bishop Cosins about his orders, he had nothing to plead 
but a University or College licence. On his ejection he 
was invited by a society of merchants to be their 
preacher at Hamburgh; but their charter being nearly 
expired the Lord Chancellor Hyde (afterwards Lord 
Clarendon) would by no means renew it until the 
dismission of Mr. Hammond, who would not use the 
rites and ceremonies of the Church of England. He 
then removed to Stockholm, in Sweden, where one Mr. 
Cutler, a merchant from London, was very kind to him ; 
and thence he went to Dantzick for a few months, 
returning to England in 1665. He resided at Hackney 
among some merchants with whom he had been abroad, 
and preached occasionally in his own and other families. 
He was buried there December 10th, 1665. He was one 
of the most learned men and best preachers in the 
North. He was also highly esteemed by the foreigners 
with whom he conversed in his travels. 

He had a hand with other ministers in : 

" The False Jew of Newcastle," i.e. an exposure of the 
impostor Thomas Ramsay ; 1654. 

As also in : 

" The Perfect Pharisee under Monkish Holiness, &c.," 
against the Quakers. 

An Epistle before a Book of Examples against 
Swearing. 

A MS. letter from Stockholm, which has something 
of the spirit and style of the Martyrs. 

3. HARRISON, Thomas, D.D. (1619-1682), was a native of 
Hull, and ejected from Chester Cathedral. 

While a youth his parents removed to America, where 
he was educated for the ministry. He became chaplain 
to the Governor of Virginia, who was an enemy to the 
Puritans ; and being led to adopt Puritan sentiments 
Harrison was dismissed and returned to England after 
1642. He was very popular as a preacher in London, 
and succeeded Dr. Goodwin as pastor of his " gathered 
church " at St. Dunstan's in the East, in 1650. He 



MINISTERS BORN IN YORKSHIRE, EJECTED ELSEWHERE. 223 

afterwards went to reside at Brombrough Hall, in 
Wirral, Cheshire; in 1657 he accompanied Henry 
Cromwell to Ireland, and preached for a while at 
Christ's Church, Dublin, 1657. He had the degree of 
D.D. conferred upon him by the Provost and Fellows of 
Trinity College, Dublin. Returning with Henry 
Cromwell, he became minister at Chester Cathedral, 
and preached there till ejected at the Restoration; and 
was silenced by the Bartholomew Act. 

Under the Conventicle and Five Mile Act he was 
fined and imprisoned. 

Jolly's Note Book, under date 1665, July 3rd, says a 
conventicle was discovered in the house of Dr. Thomas 
Harrison, consisting of 100 persons. The house was 
broken open, many of the people escaped, but thirty or 
forty were found hidden in closets and under the beds. 
Being arrested they were brought before the Mayor, all 
fined, and most of them paid the fine to escape 
imprisonment. 

In 1670 he again went to Dublin, became minister of a 
flourishing congregation which met in Cook Street, and 
died in that city in 1682. Daniel Burgess, writing 
August 30th, 1675, referred to him as " my thrice dearest 
Dr. Thomas Harrison, whose life and labours continue 
to Dublin " (Dedication of Funeral Sermon for Rev. 
Noah Webb, p. xlvi.). 

He published " Topica Sacra, Spiritual Logick," 1658. 
Second part added by John Hunter, of Ayr, 1712. 

9. HICKES, John (1633- 1685), was a native of Kirby Wiske. 

He was eldest son of William Hicks, of Newsam, in 
Kirby Wiske, near Thirsk, and Elizabeth Kay, of 
Topcliffe ; and born at Moorhouse, Kirby Wiske, in 1633. 
(Dr. George Hicks, the nonjuror, frequently called his 
brother, was born at Newsam, June 20th, 1642, being a 
younger son of Ralph Hicks, M.D., who died April 5th, 
1711.) He was educated at Northallerton Grammar 
School and Trinity College, Dublin, of which he was 
admitted fellow. 



224 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

On his ejectment from Stoke Damerell, Devonshire, 
he went to Saltash, and thence to Kingsbridge, where 
his meeting was much harassed. In 1671 he published 
a pamphlet entitled, " A sad narrative of the oppression 
of many honest people in Devon, &c." Being a man of 
great physical strength and courage he chastised several 
persons who came to arrest him. He is said to have 
presented a petition on behalf of nonconformists to 
Charles II., who received it in person, and shewed him 
some tokens of favour. He had licence in 1672, and 
afterwards removed to Portsmouth. He was unfor- 
tunately drawn into the army of the Duke of Monmouth 
in 1685. Escaping from Sedgmoor he found refuge with 
Mrs. Alice Lisle, who, for her hospitality towards him 
and others, was sentenced to death by Judge Jeffreys ; 
and he himself was hanged at Glastonbury.* 

10. HILL, Joseph, B.D. (1625-1707), was born at Bramley, 
near Leeds. 

He was the son of Joshua Hillt, who died when he was 
about seven years old, and nephew of Edward Hill ; was 
educated first at Pocklington, under Mr. Sedgwick, for 
one year, and admitted to St. John's College, Cambridge, 
pensioner August 20th, 1646. He had Sir Edward 
Bernard as his chamber- fellow, till Bachelor of Arts, and 
was chosen thence by Dr. Rainbow (afterwards Bishop 
of Carlisle) and the fellows of Magdalen College ; com- 
menced Master of Arts in 1649. As Fellow of Magdalen 
he bred several pupils who became very useful men. He 
was chosen Senior Proctor of the University in 1659 
(and his conduct in that office for the suppressing all 
open immoralities, shewed him to be worthy of the 
honour), and to answer the Act in the public commence- 
ment for Bachelor of Divinity in 1660. 

* Walker says that Stangrave, E. Riding, was usurped by one Hicks, a 
great enthusiast : " a man in grey clothes preaching in the pulpit." 

f Joshua Hill was sometime lecturer at Leeds under Mr. Alex. Cook. 
He was cited before the Archbishop's Court for not wearing the surplice, 
and other acts of nonconformity, but died a few hours before he should 
have appeared, 1632. 



MINISTERS BORN IN YORKSHIRE, EJECTED ELSEWHERE. 225 

Calamy says that " in 1660 he kept the B.D.'s Act at a 
public commencement, and having declared his judgment 
against conforming, the collegians cut his name out of 
their books, in kindness to him that he might avoid 
trouble." 

He retired to London and preached for a little while 
at All Hallows, Barking. " In 1662," he says, " I went 
beyond sea ; and for five or six years travelled and saw 
many of the foreign Universities, and then stayed at 
Leyden ; and considering the dissensions in England 
about Church government, &c, resolved to settle beyond 
sea that I might be quiet; where I married Mr. Richard 
Maden's daughter, born in London, and then living with 
her father, minister of the English church in Amsterdam 
(who left England in those troublous times, 1643, and 
was presently called to the English church at Utrecht, 
and thence to Amsterdam, where he died), being chosen 
to the church at Middelburg,* where I continued seven 
years ; till writing for the English against the French in 
" The Interest of the United Provinces, being a Defence 
of the Zealander's choice," I was banished durante hello 
by a Frenchified party in the States, 1674." 

Whereupon he came to England, and waiting on 
Charles II. he, as a reward for writing that book, gave 
him a sinecure worth above £80 per annum, and offered 
him a bishopric if he would conform. But being 
altogether dissatisfied with the terms of conforming he 
declined, and was " called by the States of Holland and 
the city of Rotterdam at the election of the English 
Church there, which he accepted and went to in 1679." 
He died there November 5th, 1707, aged 83. 

He was an acceptable and edifying preacher from his 
first entering the ministry. He had laid in a consider- 
able stock of useful learning, and had an excellent way of 
employing it. Few persons had a more plain and 
intelligible method of preaching. He was peculiarly 
happy in a very short but satisfactory opening of his 



*It was the Scottish Church, where he was from 1667 to 1673. 
Q 



2 26 YORKSHIRE P URITA NISM A ND EA RL Y NONCONFORMITY. 

text; and was always very methodical in handling his 
subject. His sermons were well adapted to profit his 
hearers; and those who were most intimate with him 
could plainly see in him when out of the pulpit a no less 
tender concern for souls than when he was in it. The 
unprofitableness of his people, under the means of grace, 
and the unsuitableness of their lives to their profession, 
were his most sensible grief. He was so addicted to 
study that the infirmities of age did not divert him from 
spending many hours in a day among his books, of which 
he had a large and valuable collection. 

He gave a library to the Free School at Leeds, and 
wrote numerous works, of which the following were the 
chief : 

Dissertation on the Antiquity of Temples. 

Dissertation on Artificial Churches. 

A Sermon on Sudden Death. 

Sermon in Morning Exercises on Meditation. 

He also published a neat edition of Schrevelius's 
Greek Lexicon. 

"The revision of Dr. Lightfoot's Works that were 
translated out of English into Latin and printed at 
Rotterdam by R. Leers cost me two years' time at 
spare hours. . . . those I have published are not the half 
I have to publish if the Lord spare my life and health " 
(Letter to Thoresby, dated London, September 30th, 
1696, Corr. I. 252). 

11. HOYLE, Nathaniel, M.A., B.D., was born at Sowevby, 
near Halifax. 

He was probably brother of Joshua Hoyle, D.D., 
sometime of Magdalen Hall, fellow of Trinity College, 
Dublin, 1609, who returned to England in 1641, and 
became vicar of Stepney, was member of the Assembly 
of Divines, Master of University College, Oxford, and 
regius professor of divinity, 1648, and died in 1654. 

Nathaniel was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, 
B.A., Fellow 1631, M.A. 1635; went to Oxford and held 




HENRY JESSEY, M.A. 



Tfrjace page 227. 



MINISTERS BORN IN YORKSHIRE, EJECTED ELSEWHERE. 227 

a fellowship in Brazenose College, 1648-9, when he 
returned to Dublin and became Vice-Provost. 

At the Restoration he lost his fellowship ; signed, on 
December 31st, 1661, a Testimonial to Edward Veal, 
M.A., a nonconformist, as " Nathaniel Hoyle, late 
minister of Donobrookand late Fellow of Trinity College, 
Dublin." He is mentioned by Heywood among 
" Preachers or Scholars bred up in the University, 
born in this vicarage of Halifax," as living in Ireland, "a 
nonconformist, since dead." 

12. HOMES, John (1635- ), was born at Achlam, near 

York, and ejected at Heaton (Haughton), Northumber- 
land, in 1660. 

He was son of Robert Humes, of Crathorne, and born 
at Acklam ; educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, 
admitted June 12th, 1651, aet. 16, and appointed te 
the sequestered living of Houghton. At the Restoration, 
when the former incumbent returned, he went into 
Scotland, and was a member of the Presbytery of Edin- 
burgh. (See Woodrow's " List of Suffering Scotch 
Ministers." Ap. I. 72.) 

13. JACKSON, Christopher (?) (1638- ), was a native of 

Kildwick, and ejected at Llanpeter, Pembrokeshire. 

He was son of John Jackson, of Kildwick, husband- 
man, educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, 
admitted May 19th, 1654, aet. 16. 

14. JESSEY, Henry, M.A. (1601-1663), was a native of West 

Rounton, in the North Riding, and ejected from the 
Rectory of St. George's., Southwark, London, at the 
Restoration. 

He was son of the rector of West Rounton, born there 
September 3rd, 1601, carefully educated till he was 
seventeen years of age, when he was admitted to St. 
John's College, Cambridge, A.B. 1623, A.M. 1626, 
when he signed the three articles. On the death of his 
father he was so much straitened in his circumstances 



228 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

as not to have above sixpence a day, but continued six 
years at the University, became well versed in Hebrew 
and the writings of the Rabbis, and understood Syriac 
and Chaldee. 

On his removal from Cambridge he resided in the 
family of old Mr. Brampton Gurdon, of Assington, in 
Suffolk, where he continued nine years, improving his 
time well, and among other studies applied himself to the 
study of physic. In 1627 he took Episcopal orders and 
often preached in the neighbourhood. In 1633 he 
became vicar of Aughton, in the East Riding, from 
which Mr. Alder was removed for his nonconformity; 
and the year following was himself removed on the same 
account, but was appointed by Sir Matthew Boynton, of 
Barmston, to preach at the Chapel of Rowsby, in the 
parish of Hinderwell, which had been founded by one of 
his family. In 1635 he removed with Sir Matthew to 
London, and the next year to Hedgeley House, near 
Uxbridge. 

He was then invited to take the charge of the 
Independent congregation, of which Henry Jacob and 
John Lathorp had been pastors, and which was gathered 
by Jacob in 1616. He went at Midsummer, 1637, and 
continued until his death. 

The year after his settlement some of the members of 
his church became Baptists, and were afterwards 
followed by others ; this led him to study the subject 
more closely, with the result that he was convinced that 
the proper mode of baptism was by immersion, and 
about 1644 he also gave up infant baptism. In 1645 he 
submitted to immersion, which was performed by 
Hanserd Knollys. But he was of a catholic spirit and 
took great pains to promote open communion. 

Previous to this he had suffered much for his noncon- 
formity. On February 21st, 1637, he and many others 
who had met together to worship God were seized and 
carried away from Queenhithe by the Bishops' pursui- 
vants. The same thing took place a few months later. 
In November, 1639, he was sent by his congregation into 



MINISTERS BORN IN YORKSHIRE, EJECTED ELSEWHERE. 229 

Wales to assist old Mr. Wroth, Mr. Cradock and others 
in gathering a church in Llanfaches, in Monmouthshire. 
On April 21st, 1640, when met with many others for 
religious service on Tower Hill, they were interrupted 
by the pursuivants and imprisoned in the Tower by Sir 
W. Bulfore ; they were released and bound over by 
Archbishop Laud to appear at the next Sessions, but 
were never called. On August 22nd, 1641, he and five 
of his congregation were seized by order of the Lord 
Mayor and committed to Wood Street Compter, but 
when they appealed to Parliament they were forthwith 
released. 

During the period when Episcopacy was set aside 
Jessey was very diligent in preaching and study, and 
was held in high and general esteem. Every Lord's day 
afternoon he ministered to his own church, which 
probably met in Swan Alley, Coleman Street. In the 
morning he usually preached at St. George's Church, 
Southwark, and once in the week-day at Ely House and 
in the Savoy to the wounded soldiers. He devoted 
much time and pains to making a New Translation of 
the Scriptures, which was never completed. He had 
well-nigh the whole Bible by heart ; and in the original 
it was as familiar to him as in his native tongue. He 
chose a single life that he might be the more entirely 
devoted to his sacred work and the better enabled to do 
good. His benevolence was remarkable. In 1659 ne 
collected money for distressed Jews in Jerusalem. In 
order to prevent needless interruption in his studies he 
put over his study door, where he usually received his 
visitors, the following words : 

" Amice, quisquis hue ades, 
Aut agito paucis, aut abi, 
Aut me laborantem adjuva." 

" Whatever friend comes hither 
Despatch in brief or go 
Or help me busied too." 

This was similar to Zachary Ursinus, a diligent 



230 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

student of Heidelberg, who wrote over the door of his 
library : 

Amice, quisquis hue venis 
Aut agito paucis, aut abi." 

At the Restoration he was ejected from St. George's. 
On November 27th, 1661, he was seized and kept in the 
messenger's hands, and after a month's wrongful 
restraint released by the Privy Council. A few months 
afterwards he fell into his last sickness, and died in a 
very happy frame of mind September 4th, 1663. His 
Epitaph in Latin was to this effect : — 

" From storms of danger and from seas of grief 
Safe landed, Jessey finds a blest relief. 
The grave's soft bed his sacred dust contains, 
And with its God the soul in bliss remains. 
Faith was his bark, incessant Prayers his oars, 
And Hope his gale ; that from these mortal shores 
Through death's rough wave to heaven his spirit bore, 
T' enjoy his triumph and to sigh no more." 
Works : 
"A Store-house of Provision in sundry cases of Conscience." 
"A Scripture Calendar from 1645 to 1660." 
" The Glory and Salvation of Judah and Israel." 
" An Easy Catechism for Children." 
" The Exceeding Riches of Grace in Mrs. Sarah Wight." 
"The Lord's Loud Call to England." 
" Miscellanea Sacra; or Divers Necessary Truths." 
An Epistle prefixed to the English-Greek Lexicon, 1661 ; con- 
taining the derivations and significations of all the words in 
the New Testament, in the compilation of which he had a 
principal hand. 

He published annual Scripture Kalendars, 1645-64, 
and planned a revision of the Bible. 

[" A Looking-Glass for Children," frequently ascribed 
to him, is probably the work of Abraham Cheare, a 
Baptist minister of Plymouth. — Editor] . 

15. LEAVER, Robert (1624-1690), was born at York, and 
ejected from the Vicarage of Boldham, in Northumber- 
land, in 1660. 

He was son of Robert Leaver, a merchant, of York, 



MINISTERS BORN IN YORKSHIRE, EJECTED ELSEWHERE. 231 



who was son of Sampson* Leaver, and grandson of 
Thomas Leaver, a man of much note in the time of 
Henry VIII. The family was originally of Little Leaver, 
in Lancashire. The last-named was also chaplain to 
Edward VI., and one of the refugees at Frankfort in 
Queen Mary's reign. Upon the disturbances among 
the exiles there he removed to Aarau, in Switzerland, 
and was first minister of the English congregation. After 
his return to his own country, he was master of the 
hospital at Sherborn, near Durham, and intimate with 
the famous Bernard Gilpin. 

Robert Leaver was bred at York, under Mr. Belwood ; 
admitted to St. John's College, Cambridge, as sizar, 
February 24th, 1644-5, aet. 19 ; and had been previously 
admitted to Sidney Sussex College (June 1st, 1642). He 
spent seven years in the University, and, being very 
studious, would have stayed much longer, but his father 
dying, he entered on the ministry at Boldham. 

After spending about ten years there, he was ejected in 
1660 by the return of the sequestered incumbent. He 
had laid out considerable sums in repairing the parsonage 
house at the desire of the parish, and never got the 
money repaid. 

When he saw that there was no prospect of public 
usefulness without conforming, he retired to a small 
estate which he had near Durham, and every Lord's 
day morning walked two miles with his family to the 
Parish Church at Branspeth, where he had often been 
the preacher ; and in the afternoon preached in his own 
house. Here he enjoyed quiet in obscurity, not being 
disturbed by the Five Mile Act, or any of the laws then 
in force against the nonconformists ; and preached when 
opportunity offered. 

In 1672 he was engaged at several places in the 
county; but by travelling in all weathers and being 



* Sampson Leaver, grandfather of Robert Leaver, not only lost a con- 
siderable living for his nonconformitv, but spent nigh £1,000 of his own 
estate among the people, and suffered for them. 



232 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 



ill-accommodated among the miners and workers at the 
forges, he contracted a paralytic habit. 

His most frequent labours were in or near Newcastle, 
where he often preached to some young men, but with 
such privacy that he knew not where, till one of them 
came to conduct him to the place. These were the 
young men who were cited before Lord Chief Justice 
Jeffreys at Newcastle, who are mentioned by Mr. Bennet 
in his " Memorial of the Reformation." 

He also constantly kept up a meeting at the house of 
Mr. Wilson (who was ejected from Lamesley, in Durham), 
which was a little out of the town. Here they preached 
alternately gratis for two years. 

In August, 1684, he was apprehended at the inn in 
Gateshead for preaching at a conventicle at Mr. C. 
Horsley's, of Milburn Grange, a gentleman of family 
and fortune, who spared neither pains, nor purse, nor 
person to serve the interests of religion among the 
despised nonconformists, and was a considerable sufferer. 
He paid for two sermons preached in his house in one 
day by Mr. Owen and Mr. Leaver. The warrant against 
Mr. Leaver was for £20, to be levied upon his goods ; 
and by that he was detained till they procured one for 
his person, by which he was carried before a justice, who 
committed him to Durham jail. In about a week he was 
bailed, and bound over to the quarter sessions. When 
he appeared upon his recognizance, none coming to 
demand the fine, he was discharged, and the money was 
never paid. 

After this, and upon Mr. Wickliffe's death, he con- 
tinued preaching at Hartborne. Here he met with some 
discouragements on account of a disagreement among 
the people in the choice of an assistant, which occasioned 
a division, though they did not raise above £10 per 
annum for the pastor. A gentleman in the congregation 
drew up a statement of the case, in which he complains 
of the ungovernableness of the people and the intrusion 
of the Scottish ministers. 

Mr. Leaver continued to preach to the remaining part 



MINISTERS BORN IN YORKSHIRE, EJECTED ELSEWHERE. 233 

of the congregation, who composed the majority, till 
July 1st, 1690/' when he died, after a few days' illness 
(though he had been declining some time), aged 66. 
He was of a low stature and a weak constitution, yet a 
hard student and a learned man. His genius appears to 
have been acute and penetrating. He was a very subtle 
disputant, but a man of great sincerity and a very strict 
observer of the Lord's day. 

He desired to be buried in the church in which he had 
been stated pastor ; but the old incumbent would not 
allow it, though he had regularly paid him his fifths. 

[Ralph Wickliffe, above referred to, was a kinsman of 
Mr. Leaver, and was born at Sunderland. He was 
ejected from the rectory of Whalton, Northumberland. 
In 1672 he preached at Sunderland. R. Fenwick says 
he was a member of Ward's church, at Hartborne, and 
preached to the people there after Ward left. He suffered 
much for his nonconformity. He kept a farm with much 
labour, his cattle being driven away and sold to pay fines 
that were levied on him for preaching. He died in 1683, 
aged 53-] 

16. MALLINSON, John (1610-1685), was born at Rastvick, in 

the parish of Halifax, and ejected from the Vicarage 
of Melling, Lancashire. 

He was a son of John Mallinson, of Rastrick; educated 
at Magdalen College, Oxford, matriculated February 3rd, 
1625-6, aged 17, B.A. April 17th, 1630. He was 
appointed vicar of Melling in 1648. He was an excellent 
scholar, but not a popular preacher. His family was 
numerous, and he died very poor in May, 1685, aged 
75. His widow was buried at Manchester, June 12th, 
1689, aged 74. 

17. MARSDEN, Samuel ( -1677), was born at Coley, in the 

parish of Halifax, and ejected from the Vicarage of 
Neston, Cheshire. 
He was the eldest son of Ralph Marsden, curate of Coley. 

*St. John's College Register says d. 10 Aug. 1696. 



234 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 



He was presented to the living at Neston, in place 
of Samuel Green, by the Committee for Plundered 
Ministers, on September 22nd, 1647 ; signed the Cheshire 
Attestation as U minister of Neston," 1648 ; ejected thence ; 
went to Ireland, and died there in 1677. 

He was the ablest of the four sons of Ralph Marsden. 
He probably originated the Wood Street congregation, 
Dublin ; and was succeeded in the pastorate by the 
celebrated Dr. Daniel Williams. 

Josiah, the youngest son, who was born at Neston, 
Cheshire, was also a nonconformist, and died in Ireland. 
He came over when a youth to Trinity College, Dublin, 
and became a Fellow in 1658. He was still at Trinity, 
and signed as " late Fellow " in 1661. He died early. 

18. MOXON, George (i6o2-i687),was born near Wakefield, and 
ejected from the Rectory of Astbury, Cheshire, in 1660, 
and from Rushton in 1662. 

He was educated at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. 
He was a good lyric poet, and could imitate Horace so 
exactly as not easily to be distinguished. He was some- 
time chaplain to Sir William Brereton, and afterwards 
preached at St. Helen's Chapel, Lanes., where he met 
with much trouble from Dr. Bridgman, Bishop of 
Chester, for his nonconformity to the ceremonies. He 
stayed there till about the year 16^7, when the citation 
for him being hung upon the chapel door, he rode away 
in disguise to Bristol, took shipping for New England, 
and upon his arrival there became pastor to the church 
at Springfield. 

He returned to Old England in 1653, and became joint 
pastor with Rev. John Machin of the Congregational 
church at Astbury, living in the parsonage house, and 
preaching on the Lord's days alternately at the parochial 
chapel. He was one of the assistant commissioners for 
removing ignorant and scandalous ministers in Cheshire. 
At the Restoration the sequestered incumbent returned ; 
Mr. Moxon then preached at Rushton until by the Act 
of Uniformity he was silenced. After two or three 



MINISTERS BORN IN YORKSHIRE, EJECTED ELSEWHERE. 235 



removals he went to live at Congleton, where he had 
licence for his own house as a Copgregationalist (April 
30th, 1672) ; and preached there and elsewhere as he 
had opportunity, until disabled by age and palsy. He 
died September 15th, 1687, aged 85. He was a man 
of blameless conduct and a peaceable spirit, and very 
useful to persons under spiritual trouble. His funeral 
sermon was preached by Eliezer Birch, and was the first 
sermon preached in the new meeting-house. He had a 
son of the same name, minister of Radwinter, Essex, 
where he was ejected in 1660. 

19. ODDY, Joseph, M.A. ( -1687), was a native of 

Leeds, and ejected from Trinity College, Cambridge, 

He was educated at Trinity College, of which he was 
Fellow; B.A. 1656, M.A. 1660; and held the living of 
Mildred (Meldreth), Cambridge. 

After his ejection he became one of the colleagues of 
Francis Holcroft, M.A., Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge, 
who had gathered a Congregational church and preached 
with great zeal in various places around Cambridge ; was 
his fellow- sufferer on account of nonconformity, and 
imprisoned 1663 for preaching at Meldreth. He retired 
to Willingham, in the Isle of Ely, where Nathaniel 
Bradshaw, who was ejected from the rectory of that 
parish, had formed a church in his own house ; and on 
the removal of the latter to London became his successor. 
He was so popular as a preacher that many persons 
travelled twenty miles to hear him, and he was sometimes 
constrained to preach in the open fields. 

He was now frequently imprisoned, and was at one 
time confined for five years together. He had licence in 
1672 for a meeting at Cottenham ; and continued his 
labours amidst much persecution till his decease on 
May 3rd, 1689. 

He was buried at Oakington, where five years later his 
former colleague, Mr. Holcroft, was laid beside him. 

It is said of Oddy that on being accosted by one of the 



236 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

wits of Cambridge, after he was released from prison, in 
the following words : 

11 Good-day, Mr. Oddy ; 
Pray how fares your body ? 
Methinks you look damnably thin," 
he as promptly replied — 

"That, sir, 's your mistake; 
Tis for righteousness sake : 
Damnation 's the fruit of your sin." 

20. PELL, William (1634- 1698), was a native of Sheffield. 

He was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford ; ma- 
triculated 1650, B.A. 1654, M.A. 1658, and Fellow of his 
College, 1656. He was nominated tutor at the University 
of Durham ; a scheme for which was proposed by Oliver 
Cromwell by his writ of Privy Seal, dated May 15th, 1657, 
but which he did not live long enough to carry into full 
effect. 

He was presented to the living of Essington, Durham, 
by Richard Cromwell, Protector, April 12th, 1659. On 
the return of the sequestered incumbent in 1660, he was 
put into the rectory of Great Stainton, in the same 
county, whence he was ejected by the Act of Uniformity, 
1662. He afterwards preached occasionally in private, 
and was imprisoned in Durham on that account ; but 
removed himself to London by a Habeas Corpus, and was 
set at liberty by Judge Hale. Under the Indulgence he 
was licensed for his own house at Durham, May 1st, 1672. 
He retired to the northern parts of Yorkshire, and 
practised physic ; afterwards preached publicly at Tatter- 
shall, in Lincolnshire ; and was steward in the Earl of 
Lincoln's family. On James II. 's Declaration of Liberty 
(1687), he ministered to a congregation at Boston, and 
ultimately removed (1692) to Newcastle, as assistant to 
Dr. Gilpin. On the death of Ralph Ward, minister at 
York (1693), Lady Hewley wrote to her intimate friend, 
Lady Rokeby, in London, that " some of the people were 
for Mr. Pell, a Lincolnshire man, whom they highly 
commend," as his successor. He died at Newcastle, in 



MINISTERS BORN IN YORKSHIRE, EJECTED ELSEWHERE. 237 

December, 1698, aged 63, and was buried in the churchyard 
of St. Nicholas Church. 

He was a very pious man, and a grave solid preacher, 
in praying and preaching excelled by few. He was spoken 
of as one of the most learned men in England, and was 
particularly eminent for his skill in Oriental languages. 

His friends urged him to teach academical learning, 
for which he was exceedingly well qualified ; but they 
could not prevail on him to do so, because of his scruples 
on account of the oath he had taken at the University 
of Oxford in commencing Master of Arts. 

21. POOL, Matthew, M.A. (1624-1679), a native of Yorkshire, 
was ejected from the Rectory of St. Michael's-le-Querne 
in 1660. (The family name was originally spelt Pole.) 

He was son of Francis Pool, of York, an eminent 
lawyer, who married a daughter of Alderman Topham. 
His grandfather, Richard Pool, descended from the 
ancient family of the Poles, of Spindhill (-hall or -hull), 
in Derbyshire, being driven thence on account of his 
attachment to the principles of the Reformation, lived at 
Sike House, near Drax, and afterwards at Drax Abbey, 
five miles from Snaith, Yorkshire. There Matthew was 
born, and had an estate of / ioo per annum left him by 
his father. He was admitted pensioner to Emanuel 
College, Cambridge, July 2nd, 1645 ; made scholar of the 
house 1646, B.A. 1648-9, M.A. 1652 [or 1657], incorpo- 
rated at Oxford, July 14th, 1657. He was a pupil of John 
Worthington, D.D., a Fellow of the College (afterwards 
Vice-Chancellor, and displaced from the mastership of 
Jesus College in 1660). He was appointed rector of St. 
Michael's-le-Quern, London, about the year 1656, in 
succession to Dr. Tuckney, and remained there until 
ejected by the Act of Uniformity. 

He was very facetious in his conversation, very true 
to his friends, very strict in his piety and universal in 
his charity. He set on foot a good and great project 
for sustaining young men of piety and ability at the 
Universities in the study of divinity. He had the 



238 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

approbation of the heads of houses in both of them ; and 
nominated such excellent persons for trustees, and 
solicited so earnestly, that in a little time about £900 
per annum was procured for that purpose. Dr. Sherlock, 
Dean of St. Paul's, was one of those who were educated 
on this foundation. But the design was quashed at the 
Restoration. 

He was a very diligent preacher and a hard student. 
With ten years' indefatigable study he finished his 
" Synopsis Criticorum" in five large volumes, folio, the first 
of which was published in October, 1669. Even Anthony 
Wood owns it to be an admirable and useful work, and 
says "the author left behind him the character of a 
celebrated critic and casuist." It includes not only an 
abridgment of the M Critici Sacri," but extracts from a great 
number of treatises and pamphlets that might have been 
otherwise lost. It was undertaken by the advice of 
Bishop Lloyd, and patronized by Bishop Tillotson ; and 
he obtained a royal patent for the sole printing of it. 
Lord Fairfax bequeathed him £10 " towards the carrying 
[on] of his "Synopsis of the Creticks." 

While he was preparing this work and his English 
Annotations, it was his usual custom to rise at three or 
four o'clock, and to take a raw egg about eight or nine 
and another about twelve ; then to continue his studies 
till the afternoon was pretty far advanced, when he went 
out and spent the evening at the house of some friend, at 
none more frequently than Alderman Ashhurst's. At such 
times he would be exceedingly, but innocently merry, 
very much diverting both himself and his company. 
After supper, when it was near time to go home, he would 
say, " Now let us call for a reckoning " ; and then would 
begin some very serious discourse, and when he found 
the company was composed and serious he would take 
leave of them. This course was very serviceable to his 
health, and enabled him to go through the great fatigue 
of his studies. 

In 1678, when Oates' " Depositions " were printed, Pool 
found his own name in the list of persons who were to be 



MINISTERS BORN IN YORKSHIRE, EJECTED ELSEWHERE. 239 

cut off, as was supposed for what he had written against 
the Roman Catholics. This gave him not the least 
concern, till one night, having been at Alderman Ashhurst's, 
he took one Mr. Chorley to bear him company home ; 
when they came to a narrow passage from Clerkenwell 
to St. John's Court two men stood at the entrance, 
one of whom cried out, " Here he is." Upon which 
the other said, " Let him alone, for there is somebody 
with him." Mr. Pool asked his friend whether he heard 
what these men said, adding, " I had been murdered 
to-night had not you been with me." 

This raised in him such an apprehension of danger that 
he soon afterwards retired to Amsterdam, in Holland, 
where he ended his days in October, 1679, aged 56. It 
was generally supposed that he was poisoned. His wife 
died in 1668, and was buried at St. Andrew's, Holborn. 

The following is a list of his works : 

1. " Synopsis Criticorum." 

" The plan was judicious and the execution more free from 
error than seems consistent with so great a work being 
finished by one man in so short a time." — Granger. 

2. "The Blasphemer Slain with the Sword of the Spirit; or the 

Deity of the Holy Ghost against Biddle." 

3. A Model for maintaining students in the University. 

4. A Letter to the Lord C. Fleetwood. 

5. " Quo Warranto, or a moderate debate about the preaching 

of Unordained Persons, &c, written by Appointment of the 
Assembly." 

6. a Evangelical Worship," a Sermon preached before the Lord 

Mayor, August 26th, 1660. 

7. "Vox Clamantis in Deserto," respecting the ejection of the 

Ministers. 

8. "The Nullity of the Roman Faith." 

9. M Dialogue between a Popish Priest and an English Protes- 

tant." 
10. " A Seasonable Apology for Religion," on Matt. xi. 9. 
n. Four Sermons in the Morning Exercises. 

12. A Poem and two Epitaphs on Mr. Jeremiah Whitaker. 

13. Two on the Death of Mr. R. Vines. 

14. Another on that of Mr. Jacob Stock. 

15. A Preface to Posthumous Sermons of Mr. Nalton's, with 

some account of his character. 



240 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

16. One vol. folio of English Annotations on the Bible ; death 
preventing his going further than the 58th Chapter of 
Isaiah. (This work was completed by other hands.) 

22. ROSE, Thomas ( -1698), was born at Sheffield, and 

ejected from the vicarage of Blodsworth, Lincolnshire (?) 
[No such place is named in the Liber Ecclesiasticus ; 
Blid worth, Notts., seven miles west of Southwell, 
is probably intended. — Editor.] 

When at school at Rotherham during the civil war, 
the town being assaulted by a party of the Royalist 
forces, he and about thirty-six more of the schoolboys got 
a piece of artillery planted at the entrance of the Bridge, 
and played upon them as they came down the hill so as 
to do considerable execution; whereas the fire of the 
enemy flew over their heads, and thus they saved the 
town. 

Having ministered several years at " Blodsworth " he 
was ejected in 1662 ; but still continued to preach there, 
though much harassed by the prebendaries and others 
from Southwell. He afterwards removed to Nottingham, 
where he was imprisoned for six months, and subse- 
quently preached to a considerable number of persons at 
Adbolton. 

On the landing of the Duke of Monmouth in the west 
(1685), he was arrested ; and on his release continued 
preaching as before until his death, which took place in 
1698. 

23. SPADEM AN,Thomas (i626-i678),was born at Rotherham, 

and ejected from the Rectory of Authorpe, in the Isle 
of Axholme, Lincolnshire. 

He was son of Nicholas Spademan, of Rotherham ; 
educated at Lincoln College, Oxford, matriculated 1642, 
aet. 16 ; ordained July 23rd, 1647, by the first London 
Classis ; appointed vicar of Melton Ross, co. Lines., 1647, 
and rector of Authorpe, where he remained till ejected in 
1662. 

He was much esteemed for his learning, diligence, and 
charity. He was a Royalist, and refused to sign the 



MINISTERS BORN IN YORKSHIRE, EJECTED ELSEWHERE. 241 

Engagement. After his ejection, although he would not 
sign the Declaration appointed by the Oxford or Five 
Mile Act (1665), his known loyalty and peaceable 
behaviour were such that he was permitted to reside in the 
place where he had been minister. When the Declaration 
of Indulgence was issued in 1672 he was chosen pastor of 
a Presbyterian Church at Boston, and died there in 1678. 
He was father of John Spademan, educated at Mag- 
dalen College, Cambridge, and minister of Swayton, 
Lines. ; who at first conformed, then went to Holland, 
and became pastor of the English Church at Rotterdam ; 
returning to England, he was assistant and afterwards 
successor to John Howe, and died February 14th, 1708. 

24. STANCLIFFE, Samuel, M.A. (1630-1705), was a native 
of Halifax, and ejected from the Rectory of Stanmore 
Magna, Middlesex. 

He was son of John Stancliffe, draper, of Southowram, 
where he was born ; bred at the Grammar School, 
Halifax, under Mr. Wood; graduated at St. John's 
College, Cambridge. 

Of his life for some years after his ejection we have no 
particulars. In 1692 he succeeded Thomas Rosewell, as 
pastor of a congregation at Rotherhithe, Surrey ; and 
continued there for many years, until compelled to resign 
through bodily weakness. He died at Hoxton in 1705. 
He was. a man of no party, an eminent divine of great 
sagacity and knowledge, a serious, judicious preacher and 
possessed an admirable gift in prayer. He left a good 
estate to his family, and gave a legacy to the school in 
which he was educated, where there is the following 
inscription to his memory:-— 

" In memory of the Reverend Mr. Samuel Stancliffe, descended 
from the ancient family of Stancliffe in the parish of Halifax, some 
time of St. John's College, in Cambridge, and minister of Stanmore 
Magna, in the county of Middlesex, who departed this life the 12th 
day of December, An. Dom. 1705, aged 75 years." 

Calarny mentions him as one of those to whose assist- 
ance he was specially indebted in compiling his 
" Account of the Ejected Ministers." 

R 



242 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 



25. WILKINSON, Henry, D.D. (1616-1690), was born at 
Adwick-le-Street (four miles from Doncaster), of which 
his father, William Wilkinson, was rector ; and was 
ejected from the Principalship of Magdalen Hall, 
Oxford. 

He belonged to a family of this name which had been 
long settled at Elland, in the parish of Halifax, and 
several of the members of which were distinguished alike 
for their Puritanism and their learning. 

William Wilkinson, of Elland, married a daughter of Sir 
Henry Savile, Provost of Eton. He had three sons, 
viz. (1) John Wilkinson, D.D., Principal of Magdalen 
College (died 1649), who left his estate to his nephew 
Henry; (2) William Wilkinson, rector of Adwick-le-Street ; 
and (3) Henry Wilkinson (1566-1647), rector of Waddes- 
don, Bucks. 

Each of these last-named had a son Henry, viz. (4) 
Henry Wilkinson (1616-1690), son of William, of Ad- 
wick ; (5) Henry Wilkinson (1610-1675), son of Henry, of 
Waddesdon, B.D. 1638, D.D. 1649, rector of St. Dun- 
stan's in the East, 1645, ejected. 

Only the first of these (4) properly finds a place in this 
list. He was educated at Edward Sylvester's School and 
Magdalen Hall, Oxford ; admitted Commoner 1631, M.A. 
1638 ; on his examination for orders he met with very 
unfair treatment from the Bishop of Oxford's chaplain, 
who put several ensnaring interrogatories for the purpose 
of entangling and embarassing him. For preaching a 
sermon at St. Mary's, Oxford, September 6th, 1640, 
against lukewarmness in religion he was suspended by 
the Vice-Chancellor, but afterwards restored by the 
House of Commons, who ordered the sermon to be 
printed. A remarkable speech upon this occasion was 
made by Sir Edward Deering, chairman of the House 
Committee. He continued till 1642, when he was 
minister at Buckminster, in Leicestershire. On 30th 
October, 1643, he was appointed to the sequestered 
vicarage of Epping, and in 1648 he signed the Essex 
Testimony. Whether or not he was a member of the 



MINISTERS BORN IN YORKSHIRE, EJECTED ELSEWHERE. 243 

Westminster Assembly is strangely uncertain ; some 
authorities assert it, others say that the Assembly-man 
was his cousin of the same name. 

He returned to Oxford in 1648 ; in that year was 
admitted B.D. and soon after D.D; ; and was successively 
appointed tutor, Vice-President, and Principal of Mag- 
dalen Hall, and also Whyte's Moral Philosophy Reader 
in the University. He retained his office as Principal 
till 1662. 

After his ejectment he suffered much for his noncon- 
formity by imprisonments, fines, and the loss of his goods 
and books. He first preached at Buckminster ; then at 
Gosfield, Essex. On June gth, 1671, he was cited before 
the Archdeacon for " not reading service according to the 
rubric but doth omit the greater part thereof." 

He seems to have officiated in the Parish Church, the 
vicarage there being vacant by the decease of a former 
vicar in i66g, and a new vicar not being appointed till 
July 8th, 1672. He was pronounced contumacious and 
excommunicated. 

Under the Indulgence he had licence as a Presbyterian 
for a meeting in his own house, 16th May, 1672. He 
afterwards went to Sible Hedingham (1673) in the same 
county, where his library was distrained for his preaching 
and books of great value much damaged and carried away 
in carts. He was also rudely treated by some of the 
magistrates, though he often pressed Christians to 
loyalty, meekness and patience. Finally he removed to 
Great Cornard, in Suffolk, where he died, May 13th, 1690. 
His remains were interred at Milding, near Lavenham, 
Suffolk, where a stone, with a short inscription, was placed 
over his grave. He was ever esteemed a very plain-hearted 
man ; humble, free and communicable ; bold in his duty 
and free from dissimulation. Wood says, " He was ever 
courteous in speech and carriage, communicative of his 
knowledge, generous and charitable to the poor, and so 
public-spirited that he always minded the common good 
more than his own concerns." 

He was well acquainted with Archbishop Usher, and 



244 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

had from his own lips the prediction which he was said 
to have uttered in 1601, when preaching on Ezekiel 
iv. 6 : " I reckon forty years, and then those whom you 
now embrace (the Roman Catholics) shall be your ruin 
and you shall bear their iniquities " (which seemed to be 
fulfilled in the terrible Irish Massacre of 1641.) 

In his treatise on God's all-sufficiency, he tells from the 
same Archbishop the following story : " A Commission 
de Hseretics comburendo was sent to Ireland from Queen 
Mary by a certain Doctor, who, at his lodgings at Chester, 
made a boast of it. One of the servants in the inn, being 
a well-wilier to Protestants, took notice of the words and 
found out a method to get away the commission, which 
he kept in his own hands. When the commissioner came 
into Ireland he was entertained with great respect. After 
some time he appeared before the Lords of the Council 
in Ireland, and then opened his box to show his commis- 
sion ; but there was nothing in it but a pack of cards. 
Whereupon he was committed to prison and threatened 
exceedingly; but upon security given he was released, 
returned into England and obtained a new commission. 
But as soon as he came to Chester the report came of 
Queen Mary's death, which stopped his further journey." 

Dr. Wilkinson published : — 

1. Conciones tres apud Academicos Oxonii nuper habitae. Ox. 

1654. 

2. Brevis Tractatus de jure divino diei Dominici. Oxon. 1658. 

3. Conciones sex ad Academicos Oxonienses. Oxon. 1656 (three of 

these being reprints of No. 1). 

4. De impotentia liberi arbitrii ad bonum spirituale. Epistolarum 

decas. Oratio habita in schola morales philosophise. Oxon. 
1658. 

5. Cons, dual ap Ox. nuper habitae. Ox. 1658. 

6. Cons, de brevitate opportuni temporis. Ox. 1660. 

7. Sermon at Hasely, in the county of Oxford, at the funeral of 

Margaret, late wife of Mr. Edward Corbet, pastor of Hasely, 
October, 1657. 

8. Three decades of sermons lately preached to the University 

in St. Mary's Church, Oxford. Ox. 1660. 

9. Several sermons concerning God's all-sufficiency and Christ's 

preciousness. Lond. 1661. 



MINISTERS BORN IN YORKSHIRE, EJECTED ELSEWHERE. 245 

10. Catalogus Librorum in Bibl. Aul., Magdalen. Oxon. 1661. 

11. The Doctrine of Contentment briefly explained. Lond. 1671. 

12. Characters of a Sincere Heart and the comforts thereof, 

collected out of the Word of God. Lond. 1674. 

26. WINDRESSE, Thomas (1638- ), was born at Leeds, and 

ejected at Newton St. Faith's, Norfolk. 

He was son of Richard Windresse, of Leeds, at school 
under Mr. Garnett, admitted to St. John's College, June 
14th, 1656, aet. 18. Nothing beyond the simple state- 
ment by Calamy of his ejection is known. (Browne 
simply records it without remark.) — 

27. WINGFIELD, William (1631- ), was born at Ecclesfield, 

Sheffield, and was ejected from St. Peter's, Isle of 
Thanet. 

He was son of Edward Wingfield, admitted to St. 
John's College, 1648, aet. 17. He left a good name 
behind him. 

28. WRIGHT, George (1632- ),was son of Francis Wright, 

of Bolton, Richmondshire, and ejected from the Curacy 
of Congerston, Leicestershire. 

He was admitted to St. John's College, Cambridge, 
May 14th, 1647, aet. 15. After his ejection he took a 
farm at King's Heath, in the parish of King's Norton, 
Worcestershire, with which he managed with great care 
and labour to maintain his family. He was a man of 
great piety, and an awakening and useful preacher. He 
had an extraordinary gift in prayer, and was favoured 
with some uncommon answers to his prayers. 



246 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 



IV. 

MINISTERS VARIOUSLY CONNECTED WITH 
YORKSHIRE. 

i. BAGSHAW, William, B.A. (1628-1702), was curate at 
Attercliffe, Sheffield, from 1648 to 1651, and was ejected 
from the Vicarage of Glossop, Derbyshire. 

He was born at Letton, in the parish of Tideswell, 
Derbyshire, where his father of the same name had good 
success in the lead mines ; educated at Corpus Christi 
College, Cambridge ; B.A. 1646 ; and after preaching 
three months at the chapel of Warmhill, in his native 
parish, was appointed assistant to James Fisher, then 
vicar of Sheffield, and curate of the chapel at Attercliffe. 
Whilst there he resided in the family of Colonel, 
afterwards Sir John Bright at Carbrook, acted as his 
chaplain, and was ordained in the Presbyterian manner 
at Chesterfield, January 1st, 1651. In the same year he 
settled at Glossop, where he laboured zealously for eleven 
years. After his ejection in 1662 he retired to his 
father's house at Ford Hall, in the adjacent parish of 
Chapel-en-le-Frith ; had licence for a religious meeting 
in his own house (1672) as a Presbyterian ; and by his 
extensive, unwearied, and long-continued labours, became 
known as " the Apostle of the Peak." Almost the last 
entry made by Oliver Heywood in his Register was the 
following: — "Mr. William Bagshaw, of Glossup, in 
Darbishire, a worthy N. C. minister dyed April 8 
[1st.] 1702, aged 74, my dear brother." In a " Short 
Account " of his life and character, by J. Ashe, 1704, 
there is a Prefatory Letter by W. Tonge, addressed to 
Mr. Samuel Bagshaw, of Ford, his son, in which it is 
stated that Mr. Bagshaw said just before his death, " I 



MINISTERS VARIOUSLY CONNECTED WITH YORKSHIRE. 247 

have now been an ejected minister so many years (that) 
I have had a great deal of time to review and weigh 
the reasons of my nonconformity, and upon an impartial 
and serious consideration of the case I see no cause to 
change my mind." Mr. Tonge adds : " If we be like 
them and do like them God will be with us as He was 
with them ; but if we give way to an envious, proud, 
selfish, vain, contentious spirit, we are told by (that) 
admirable man, Mr. John Corbet, what will be the 
consequence ; either we shall extinguish the light of the 
Gospel or the light of the Gospel will extinguish us." 
(See also Hunter's " Hallamshire " ; " Nonconformity in 
Cheshire," edited by W. Urwick, M.A., 1864, p. 361.) 

BOON, Mr., of Finsham, is erroneously placed by Palmer 
under Settrington (where Mr. Mekal was ejected). 
Finsham is a small hamlet near Coventry, in which 
Mr. Boon, a nonconformist minister, lived and preached 
(Palmer : I. 218). 

2. CONSTANTINE, Robert (1619-1699), was some time 
preacher at the Parish Church at Bir stall, and ejected 
at Oldham, Lancashire. 

He was a prominent Presbyterian minister approved 
by the Manchester Classis for Oldham, December 18th, 
1647; signed "the Harmonious Consent" of the Lanca- 
shire ministers (March 3rd, 1648) ; was prosecuted for 
not taking the engagement ; and went by invitation to 
Birstall, where he remained three or four years. On the 
repeal of the Engagement in 1654 he returned to Oldham. 
After his ejection he preached privately, had licence for 
a meeting at Greenacres, near Oldham,* and was buried 
in Oldham churchyard, December 14th, 1699, aged 80. 
He possessed eminent abilities for his ministerial work. 
He was a man of a clear head, solid learning, and a 
pleasant conversation. He was also a well-accomplished 
preacher, having a good method, an audible voice and 

* Barn of Robt. Wild, of Hesside, Oldham Fr., May 8, 1672. 



248 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

an agreeable delivery. But living to be very old his 
faculties decayed, and he was superannuated with 
respect to his work. He maintained a good reputation 
to his death. 

3. EATON, Samuel, M.A. (1597-1665), closely associated with 
Yorkshire before he was silenced by the Act of 
Uniformity ; and here introduced especially because of 
his having founded the first Congregational church in 
the north of England. 

He was third son of Richard Eaton, B.D., vicar of 
Great Budworth, Cheshire ; born in the hamlet of Crowley ; 
educated at Magdalen College,Cambridge, B.A. 1624, M.A. 
1628; took orders and was instituted rector of West 
Kirby; suspended for nonconformity by Bishop Bridg- 
man, 1631 ; went the following year to Holland, where he 
adopted Congregational principles ; returned to England 
and associated himself with the Southwark congregation, 
of which John Lowthrop was pastor, on whose resigna- 
tion and removal to New England (1634) he ministered 
to that congregation. 

He had already been imprisoned at Newgate as " a 
schismatical and dangerous fellow," and punished with 
fines amounting to £1,550 charged on his estate at 
Wirrall.* In 1637 he accompanied his elder brother, 
Theophilus, and his younger brother, Nathaniel, to New 
England, but declined an invitation to settle at Boston. 
Colleague of John Davenport at New Haven, 1640. On 
returning to England he found a patron in Col. Robert 
Dukinfield, who made him his chaplain, and placed at 
his disposal the chapel at Dukinfield Hall. There before 
the end of 1640, or early in 1641, he originated a Congre- 
gational church, of which Edwards speaks (' Gangraena ' 
III. 165), as "the first Independent church discipline 
and frame that was set up in England, being before the 

* Samuel Eaton, of West Kirby, in the diocese of Chester, clerk, was 
fined about 1634 m sums amounting to from £30 to £300 by doubling each 
time for his contumacy in not appearing before the Commission. (From 
Hunter. Urwick: Cheshire, p. 471.) 



MINISTERS VARIOUSLY CONNECTED WITH YORKSHIRE. 249 

Apologists came from Holland and so before setting up 
their churches here in London."* 

Of the church at Dukinfield Thomas Taylor, M.A., was 
pastor, and Samuel Eaton, teacher (whose position was 
before that of pastor and whose work was not confined 
to the particular congregation). The Presbyterian 
system was not set up in Cheshire owing to a petition 
(September, 1646) against it, promoted by Taylor and 
Eaton ; and their procedure was defended by Henry 
Roote, of Sowerby, who had been minister at Gorton, in 
"A Just Apology for the Church at Dukinfield," 1646. 
Eaton was soon afterwards appointed public preacher at 
the garrison, Chester ; but on Taylor's removal from 
Dukinfield to Ireland he returned to Dukinfield, where, 
however, a division arose on account of the part taken by 
certain "gifted brethren," and he with a portion of the 
members met at the Grammar School at Stockport until 
the Restoration. After that event the use of the 
Grammar School was forbidden ; and Eaton held a 
conventicle in private until his death, which took place 
at Bredbury, January 9th, 1665. His remains were 
buried at Denton chapel, January 12th. 

4. GOWER, Stanley (1590- 1660), was some time minister at 
Sheffield, and ejected at Dorchester in 1660. 

He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin ; chaplain 
to Archbishop Usher, and afterwards to the Earl of 
Devonshire (who was at the same time patron of the 
philosopher, Thomas Hobbes, and of the notable puritan 
preacher, Richard Rothwell, Gower's spiritual father). 
He accompanied Rothwell to Barnard Castle and to 
Mansfield, and on his death (1627) was appointed 



* The Apologists began to return in 1640. Philip Nye arrived in 
England at Easter, 1640 ; but none appear to have reached London before 
the opening of the Long Parliament (November 3rd). 

The first Congregational Church set up in London seems to have been 
set up by Henry Burton at St. Matthew's, Friday Street, on his appoint- 
ment to the lectureship there, October, 1642. 



250 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

assistant minister at Sheffield, and subsequently curate 
of the newly-erected chapel at Attercliffe (1630-5). 

He was presented by Sir Robert Harley to the vicarage 
of Brampton Bryan, Herefordshire ; chosen member of 
the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, and had a 
principal part in drawing up the Assembly's Catechism ; 
was minister of St. Martin's, Ludgate, London ; preached 
before the House of Commons, July 31st, 1644 ; and 
presented (1650) to the united rectories of Holy Trinity 
and St. Peter's, Dorchester, where he died in 1660. 



5. HEYWOOD, Nathaniel, B.A. (1633-1677), was some- 
time minister in the Chapelry of Illingworth, in the 
parish of Halifax, and ejected from the Vicarage of 
Ormskirk in Lancashire. 

He was born at Little Lever, in the parish of Bolton, 
Lancashire, and educated (with his elder brother, Oliver 
Heywood) at Trinity College, Cambridge. After 
spending two years in the family of Mr. Edward Gee, 
of Eccleston, he settled at Illingworth in 1652, and was 
presented by the Countess of Derby to the vicarage of 
Ormskirk in 1656. At the Restoration (when an 
augmentation of £50 settled on him, as one of four 
itinerant preachers, was taken from him), being a strong 
Royalist he preached from the text, " Yea, let him take 
all, forasmuch as the King is come again in peace." 
He continued at Ormskirk till Bartholomew's Day, 
1662. " Ah, Mr. Heywood," said one of his parishoners, 
"we would gladly have you preach still in the Church." 
" Yes," said he, " and I would as gladly preach as you 
can desire it, if I could do so with a safe conscience." 
" Oh, sir," replied the other, " many a man nowadays 
makes a great gash in his conscience, cannot you make 
a little nick in yours ? " 

After his ejection he continued to reside in the parish 
and preached privately. In 1672 he had licence for two 
places, viz. Bickerstaff and Scaresbrick (a chapel in the 
patronage of Lady Stanley). After the recall of the 



MINISTERS VARIOUSLY CONNECTED WITH YORKSHIRE. 251 



licences he was much persecuted, and died December 
16th, 1677, aged 44. He had nine children ; one of 
whom, Nathaniel Heywood, junior, was educated at 
Frankland's Academy (admitted April 27th, 1677), and 
was nonconformist minister of Ormskirk, where he died 
1704. Many of his descendants resided at Liverpool, 
Wakefield, London and elsewhere. 

6. ILLING WORTH, James ( -1693), was ejected from 

Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and often came into 
Yorkshire. 

He was born in Manchester ; educated at Emmanuel 
College, Cambridge; Fellow 1650, and subsequently 
President. After his ejectment he became chaplain to 
Philip Foley, Esq., at Preswood Hall, Staffordshire, and 
after some years to Sir Thomas Wilbraham, Bart., and 
his widow. Heywood met him at Leeds in July, 1679, 
travelled with him into Cheshire in 1682, and often 
corresponded with him. He died at Weston, Stafford- 
shire, August 29th, 1693. He was a little man but an 
excellent scholar and eminent divine. He made large 
collections of the memoirs of noted men, especially in 
Lancashire. After his death one of Heywood's sons 
was chaplain to Lady Wilbraham. 

7. LARKHAM, George, M.A. (1630-1700), was ejected 

from the Vicarage of Cockermouth, Cumberland, and 
subsequently resided in Yorkshire for some years. 

He was son of Thomas Larkham, M.A., vicar of 
Northam, Devon, who fled from persecution to New 
England, returned thence in 1642, was appointed rector 
of Tavistock before 1649, an ^ ejected in 1660. George 
was born at Northam April 20th, 1630 ; educated at 
Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated M.A. 
He was appointed vicar of Cockermouth ; in connection 
with the Parish Church formed a congregational society, 
" through the instigation of Mr. Larkham, Pastor of 
the Church of Christ at Tavistock," consisting of eleven 



252 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

persons, October 8th, 1651. He was ordained there 
by Thomas Larkham, Gavin Eaglesfield, and George 
Benson, December 28th, and continued in his office until 
ejected November 15th, 1661. 

The members of the church afterwards met in private 
houses. In 1663, in consequence of a warrant issued 
against him, he removed to Broughton Tower, in 
Lancashire, and then into Yorkshire. He first resided 
with his " Aunt Pollard " at Gomersal, where his 
daughter Margaret was born, December 29th, 1663, and 
another daughter May 22nd, 1665. (The latter died of 
smallpox in the following year, and was buried in 
Birstall Choir by her grandmother Waterhouse.) He 
was arrested and sent to York Castle in October, 1665, 
and remained there five weeks. On his release he took 
rooms at Stancliffe Hall, near Heckmondwike ; his 
daughter Patience was baptized April 26th, 1666, at 
Topcliffe Hall, near Morley, where the Congregational 
Church^ of Woodchurch, under Christopher Marshall, 
assembled. In September he and his family came to 
dwell in the house of Richard Naylor at Heckmondwike, 
where he remained until 1668, when he returned to 
Cockermouth. 

He ministered to the church there amidst much 
persecution until his death, December 26th, 1700, in the 
71st year of his age. He married Dorothy Fletcher, of 
Tallantyre Hall, September 29th, 1652, and had by her 
a numerous family. One of his sons, Deliverance, was a 
nonconformist minister at Launceston. 

8. OXENBRIDGE, John, M.A. (1608-1674), sometime vicar 
of Beverley Minster, and ejected from a Fellowship 
of Eton College. 

He was born at Daventry, Northants, on January 
30th, 1608; was admitted pensioner of Emmanuel 
College, Cambridge, about 1626 ; graduated 1631, and 
began to preach two years later. He removed to Oxford 
— but at what date we are not informed — and was com- 



MINISTERS VARIOUSLY CONNECTED WITH YORKSHIRE. 253 

moner and tutor of Magdalen Hall. He there induced 
his scholars to subscribe to certain articles which he had 
drawn up for the regulation of their conduct ; for which 
on May 27th, 1634, he was deprived of his tutorship by 
the Vice-Chancellor Brian Duppa. In reporting this 
transaction to Laud, Duppa charged him with " ensnar- 
ing young and tender consciences with the religion of a 
vow ... as if the statutes of the place he lived in and 
the authority of the present Governors were not 
sufficient. " 

Of his proceedings during the next six or seven years 
we know but little, except that he made two voyages to 
Bermuda. 

On returning to England in 1641 he went to Yarmouth, 
where was William Bridge, M.A., who had been formerly 
minister at Norwich, but in order to escape apprehen- 
sion for his nonconformity had fled to Holland (1638), 
and there had been teacher of the church of which Hugh 
Peters was pastor. Some of those who accompanied 
Bridge on his return settled with him at Yarmouth, and 
others at Norwich ; forming at first a united church at 
Norwich, June 28th, 1643, and afterwards dividing into 
two branches. Concerning this division a letter was 
sent, May 24th, 1644, by " the brethren of Norwich," 
which "craved the presence of Mr. Oxenbridge and 
some of the brethren of Yarmouth ; and being met on the 
day appointed (June 10th) in the presence of Mr. Oxen- 
bridge, they spent the former part of the day in prayer, 
and then one in the name of the rest made a profession 
of faith whereunto all the rest gave their assent ; then 
one of them read the covenant to which they all sub- 
scribed their names " (Waddington's " Congregational 
History" 1567-1700, pp. 447-451). 

At Yarmouth, Oxenbridge was " admitted into church 
fellowship, Nov. 5, 1643 ; and was assistant thereunto, 
improving his gifts and abilities for the edification of the 
same." A request was made to the Corporation to allow 
Mr. Oxenbridge, a minister then residing at Yarmouth, 
to preach voluntarily every Sunday morning before the 



254 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

ordinary time of service. This was permitted, provided 
he made his exercise by half-past eight o'clock in the 
morning ; and in this manner he preached for six 
months, without receiving any reward except a present 
of £15 from the Corporation at his departure. 

He continued there till August 13th, 1644 (when the 
division of the church had been effected), and it is 
recorded that "John Oxenbridge and Jeane Oxenbridge 
were dismissed to ye furtherance of the work of God in 
Yorkshire." This was soon after the battle of Marston 
Moor (July 2nd), when the Royalist cause in the north 
was overthrown, and Puritan ministers began to replace 
incumbents who were adverse to the Parliament. 

" In 1644," savs Mather (Magnalia), " he became a 
pastor to a church [or congregational society] at 
Beverley " ; and Edwards, the Presbyterian, says that 
about this time an Independent church was formed 
there. It was here (as alleged in the Charge formulated 
against Charles I.) that " upon the or about the 30th 
day of June in the year of our Lord 1642 at Beverley,* 
Charles Stuart traitorously and maliciously levied war 
against the present Parliament and the people therein 
represented " (when on his way from York to seize the 
war stores at Hull). Already also William Wilberforce 
(ancestor of the celebrated William Wilberforce, M.P. 
for Hull, the advocate for the abolition of slavery) and 
others had been put into the Corporation as Indepen- 
dents, and some of them were probably members of the 
newly formed church ; but few particulars concerning it 
have been preserved. 

In 1646 the name of Oxenbridge appears in the list of 
vicars at the Minster ; the only one between Burney, 
1632, and Taneshill, 1660. His popularity was consider- 
able, and the strict Independent principles of discipline 
which he observed drew away some hearers of Samuel 
Winter, of Cottingham (afterwards Provost of Trinity 
College, Dublin, and a professed Congregationalist) ; so 

* " Our great scrummage at Beverley, June 30th, 1642." (Wilson.) 



MINISTERS VARIOUSLY CONNECTED WITH YORKSHIRE. 255 

that he called a meeting of his congregation to consider 
and determine whether the church at Cottingham was a 
true church, and whether such being the case it was 
right for any of its members to separate themselves from 
it. 

" On March 28, 1648, a sermon was preached at St. 
Mary's, Beverley, by Mr. Oxenbridge, who had been 
nominated by the Committee for Plundered Ministers ; 
and £40 was ordered to Mr. Oxenbridge and Mr. Joseph 
Wilson, out of Nafferton and Skipsea, to be paid and 
retained for the use of the Corporation ; Mr. Wilson 
having had satisfaction for his part, and Mr. Oxenbridge 
requiring nothing." 

In the same year, when Scarborough Castle, held by 
Col. Boynton for the King, was besieged by Col. Bethel, 
an attempt was made to induce Col. Boynton to 
surrender the place peaceably, and Mr. Oxenbridge was 
one of those who were admitted to consult with them ; 
but the attempt was vain ; Boynton held the castle for 
Ave months, and surrendered it December 15th, 1648. 

Oxenbridge appears to have left Beverley soon after- 
wards. He was in Scotland in 1652 ; and about this 
time he was made Fellow of Eton College, where he 
formed a friendship with Andrew Marvell (1621-1678). 
An address prefixed to a book of Nicholas Lockyer 
(Provost of Eton from 1658 to 1660) was signed by 
Caryl, Sidenham, and John Oxenbridge, " minister in 
London." His wife Jane died April 22nd, 1655, and 
Wood says : 

" Though he was a great pretender to saintship and had vowed 
an eternal love to his wife, yet before he had remained a widower 
a year he married a religious virgin named Frances, the only 
daughter of Hezekiah Woodward, the schismatical vicar of Bray, 
near Windsor ; who dying in the first year of her marriage, aged 
25 years, he soon after, as I have been told, took a third wife 
according to the fleshly custom of the saints at that time. In the 
chapel adjoining to Eton College was a monument with a large 
canting inscription set up for his first wife, Jane Butler, but the 
said inscription giving great offence to the Royalists at the Restora- 
tion, they caused it to be daubed or covered over with paint. 



256 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

There was also a monument and inscription for his second wife in 
the chapel, but this last is not defaced."* 

Ambrose Barnes remarks of Wood : " He can find no 
holy women to abuse but two : the one is Mr. Joseph 
Alleine's wife, the other Mr. Oxenbridge's first wife, 
who," he says, "while her husband was preaching 
abroad, preached in the house among her gossips." 
Barnes says further: "She was another Sarochia, few 
divines equalling her skill in textual divinity. She 
had an infirm body, but was strong in faith. Her 
husband and she had travelled about the world in 
unsettled times. They lived some time at Berwick-on- 
Tweed. They removed to Beverley, then to London, 
then to Winchester, then [he removed] to Barbadoes, then 
to Surinam, then to New England, and then to Heaven." 
Her husband loved to have her opinion on a text before 
he preached it. A friend, taking her by the hand when 
she lay dying, asked her whether she felt any pain. She 
smiled and answered, No, the sting of death was 
gone, nor felt she any pain more than the warm hand of 
the gentleman who put the question to her. 

He was ejected from his fellowship at Eton in 1660. 
On the outbreak of Venner's Fifth Monarchy Insur- 
rection in the year following, he signed " A Renunciation 
and Declaration of the Ministers of Congregational 
Churches and Public Preachers of the same judgment 
living in and about the city of London against the late 
horrid insurrection " (January, 1661). He then retired 
to Berwick-on-Tweed, where he held on his ministry 
till silenced by the Act of Uniformity. 

He next went to Surinam, 1662, to explore the 
country, and on his return published " A Proposition of 
Propagating the Gospel by Christian Colonies in the 
Continent of Guiana; being Gleanings of a larger 
Discourse"; the manuscript is yet preserved in New 



*His daughter Bathshuah, wife of Richard Scott, Esq., of Jamaica, 
sole executrix, had good estate by will. A younger daughter, Theodora, 
married November 21st, 1677, Rev. Peter Thacker, of Milton. 



MINISTERS VARIOUSLY CONNECTED WITH YORKSHIRE. 257 

England. He then went to Barbados, and in 1669 to 
Boston, New England, where he was installed as 
colleague with Allen, April 10th, and afterwards 
succeeded Mr. Davenant as pastor of the first church 
there. He was seized with apoplexy whilst preaching, 
and died shortly afterwards, December 28th, 1674. 

He published in 1661 " A Double Watchword ; or, 
The Duty of Watching, and Watching to Duty," and 
other sermons. He had a son, Dr. Daniel Oxenbridge, 
who died young. His three daughters all came to be 
"ladies" by their second husbands, viz. Lady St. John, 
Lady Boynton, and Lady Catherine Philips. 

9. SCHOFIELD, Jonathan (1607 ?- I 657), sometime minister 
at Cross-stone Chapel, in the parish of Halifax, and 
ejected from Eccleston, Lancashire. 

In Sir Thomas Fairfax's attack on Leeds, January 
23rd, 1642-3, " Mr. Jonathan Schofield, the minister of 
Croston Chapel, in Halifax parish, near Todmorden, in 
their company [the company of Major Forbes] , begun 
and they sang the first verse of the 68th Psalm :■ — 

" ■ Let God arise, and scattered 
Shall all his enemies be, 
And let all those that do Him hate 
Before his presence flee.' " 

He does not appear to have remained long at Cross- 
stone. In 1646 he was in the Belton Classis as minister 
of Bury. 

In 1648 he signed the " Harmonious Consent," as 
minister of Hey wood Chapel, and the " Agreement of the 
People," 1649. He was at the same chapel in 1650 (Pari. 
Sur.), and was reported "orthodox for divinity, well 
qualified for life and conversation." 

He was present at Oliver Heywood's ordination, 
August 4th, 1653 ; in 1654 he was appointed to officiate at 
Whalley, and removed to Douglas Chapel, in the parish of 
Eccleston, in 1659. He was ejected thence in 1662. 
After his ejection he endured much affliction and many 
straits ; but was befriended by the Wilson family of 



258 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 



Tunley Hall, kept a private school, and preached to the 
people of the neighbourhood. He died in 1667, aged 60, 
or, by another account, 70. 

10. THOMSON, George (1616-1674), was sometime minister 

at Sowevby Bridge, in the parish of Halifax, and 
ejected at Heywood, Lancashire. 

He was at Sowerby Bridge in 1653 ; succeeded 
at Heywood, Jonathan Schofield (who removed to 
Douglas) in 1659, "became a nonconformist, and died 
at Bury in 1674" (O. Heywood). He was a diligent 
laborious preacher who earnestly longed for the good of 
souls, and was very useful in promoting it. 

11. WINTER, Samuel, D.D. (1603-1666), was vicar of 

Cottingham, East Riding, and ejected from the Provost- 
ship of Trinity College, Dublin, in 1660. 

He was born at Balsall, Warwickshire (seven miles 
from Coventry) ; educated at the Free School, Coventry ; 
whence he was admitted to Lincoln College, Cambridge, 
and had Dr. Preston as tutor. Having graduated M.A., 
he went to Boston, Lincolnshire, and was under the 
ministry of the celebrated John Cotton, out of whose 
family he married Anne Beeston. From Boston he 
removed to a small living at Woodborow, near Nottingham, 
and thence as lecturer to York. He was then put into 
the living of Cottingham, where it was said that he was 
first known by his assistance in preaching to Ezekiel 
Rogers, who went to New England. 

The living of Cottingham had been vacated by the 
absence of Edward Gibson (presented by the Bishop of 
Chester in 1622), according to the following order of the 
House of Lords, April nth, 1643 : — 

"Whereas Mr. Gibson, vicar of the parish of Cottingham, in the 
county of York, hath deserted and left the charge of his cure, and is 
in the army under the command of the Earl of Newcastle levying 
war against the Parliament ; and whereas the cure of the said 
vicarage is and by the space of about half a year hath been in the 
absence of the said vicar supplied by Samuel Winter, M.A., a 



MINISTERS VARIOUSLY CONNECTED WITH YORKSHIRE. 259 

learned and religious man, and an able, painfull and orthodox 
minister and preacher of God's Word, who hath been plundered, 
stripped of his estate and driven from the city of Yorke, where he 
was settled and placed, by the forces under the command of the Earl 
of Newcastle, as the Lords and Commons in Parliament are 
informed, as well by the certificate of divers gentlemen and 
ministers of good worth and credit as by the petition of the inhabitants 
of Cottingham aforesaid, who desire the continuance of the said 
Mr. Winter in the said church. 

" All which the said Lords and Commons taking into account, do 
hereby ordain that Thomas Rokeby, Bernard Aumond, Rd. Smith, 
Thomas Aumond, Thomas Raspin, and Edward Thompson, or any 
three or more of them, shall have power to sequester the £29, being 
the usual stipend to the vicar, and also the rents of about £60 paid 
to the Bishop of Chester out of the rectory of Cottingham, and 
receive the same, and from time to time pay the same to the said 
Mr. Winter." 

Here he continued over seven years, and was exceed- 
ingly diligent in his ministry. He preached twice every 
Lord's day in public, expounded the chapter which he 
read, and catechised young persons. In the evening he 
repeated his sermons in his own family, to which many 
of the neighbours were invited. On the week days he 
went from house to house instructing the ignorant, and 
endeavouring to build up his parishioners in their most 
holy faith ; and multitudes had cause to bless God for 
his faithful labours. He told his parishioners that he 
found the parish to consist of four sorts of persons : 
scandalous, ignorant, hopeful and godly. He advised 
the hopeful and godly should be taken into fellowship ; 
the scandalous excluded and the ignorant informed. It 
is said that there were about threescore praying 
families in the town before his coming, and the Lord 
blessed his endeavours to increase them to fourscore 
In that populous place he would say the good, like the 
Prophet's figs were very good, and the bad were verv 
bad. 

He set up church discipline on Congregational lines, 
and had ruling elders. When his health failed he 
obtained assistance in the afternoons. Some of his 
hearers went to hear Mr. Oxenbridge [at the Minster, 



260 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 

Beverley] , which being sensible of, he called a public 
meeting for prayer, &c, and proposed the question whether 
there is a true church at Cottingham, and this being 
answered in the affirmative, then saith he, " None ought to 
separate from it." Only one person left him, and he 
afterwards fell into poverty and was generously helped 
by Mr. Winter. 

His first wife at her death left him five sons and £400 
a year. 

Three years afterwards he married Elizabeth, daughter 
of Christopher Weaver, Esq., with whom he had a good 
portion. 

When, in 1650, the Parliament sent four commissioners 
to Ireland to settle the affairs of that distracted kingdom, 
Mr. Winter accompanied them as their chaplain. In 
the city of Dublin he preached twice every Sunday in 
Christ's Church. A letter was written to the Church 
at Cottingham, April 13th, 1651, stating that " though 
his return to you this summer (at least for a season for 
your refreshment in spirit) may be expected by you, as 
we understand by him — yet the great work he hath on 
his hand in this populous city, where able ministers are 
very scarce, hath caused us earnestly to desire his 
continuance until next year, when he may make a journey 
to you." 

He was appointed Provost of Trinity College, June 3rd, 
1652; made D.D. 17th August, 1654; and along with 
his responsibilities and labours in the College, he took 
upon him the duties of a constant preacher and the pastor 
of a church of the Congregational order, which was in 
Christ's Church. He took part in forming clerical 
associations in which Independents, Presbyterians, and 
Episcopalians could meet in amity. He made several 
journeys in Ireland to look after and secure the estates 
belonging to the College, and amongst much difficulty 
he maintained good discipline and promoted learning and 
godliness. He also commenced a lecture at St. Nicholas' 
Church at 7 a.m. on Sundays. He was a man of untiring 
energy. 



MINISTERS VARIOUSLY CONNECTED WITH YORKSHIRE. 261 

After the death of Cromwell it was ordered by Parlia- 
ment, August 13th, 1659, that " he do repair to England 
and attend the pleasure of the Parliament." He was 
again at the College on the election of officers, November 
28th, 1659. The following year, at the Restoration, he 
was ejected from his office and returned to England. 

After his ejection he sojourned with his friends in and 
about West Chester, Coventry and Hertfordshire, and 
died at North Luffenham, Rutlandshire, December 24th, 
1666, aged 63. An interesting account of the closing 
scene of his life is furnished by Palmer. 

John Murcot, M.A., who was placed at West Kirby, 
Cheshire, by the Committee for Plundered Ministers, 
crossed over to Dublin in 165 1, and attached himself to 
Winter's congregation. He was teacher of the church 
of which Winter was pastor, died November 10th, 1654, 
aged 29, and was buried in St. Mary's Chapel, Christ's 
Church Cathedral. A volume of his works was published 
in 1657, with account of his life. 



APPENDIX. 



CONVENTICLES IN YORKSHIRE, 1669. 

{From Returns obtained by Archbishop Sheldon.) 



NORTH RIDING: — 

Roman Catholic : 

Bar wick (2). 

Bedale. 

Melsonby. 

Stan wick. 

Thornton Steward. 
Baptist : 

Stokesley. 

Undefined — Presbyterian or 
Independent : 
Cloughton. 
Coxwold. 
Kilfcmrn. 

Quaker: 
Askrigg. 
Aysgarth. 
Bedale. 
Coverham. 
Grinton. 
Guisbo rough (3). 
Malton. 
Mytton Hall. 
Richmond (Old). 
Romaldkirk. 
Sleights. 
Startforth. 
Stokesley. 
Well. 

Whitby (4). 
Wilton. 



EAST RIDING:— 
Roman Catholic: 
Tunstall. 

Presbyterian : 
Bridlington. 

Undefined — Presbyterian 
Independent : 

Holmpton. 
Quaker : 

Bridlington. 



OR 



Hilsdon. 
Hollym. 
Lisset. 
Paull. 



WEST RIDING:— 

Presbyterian : 

Hickleton. 

Houghton.* 

Pontefract.f 

Saddleworth. 

Swaith* 

Thornton. 

Undefined— Presbyterian or 
Independent : 

Attercliffe. 

Batley. 

Coley. 

Croston (Sowerby). 

Devvsbury. 

Holbeck. 

Hunslet. 

Leeds. 

Morley. 

Otley. 

Penistone. \ 

Pudsey.} 

Rotherham (2). 

Sheffield (2). 

Shirecliff Hall. 

Thorner. 

Tong. 

Baptist : 

Pontefract.f 

Quaker : 

Balby (Doncaster par.). 

Bentham. 

Burnsall. 

Clapham. 

Darfield. 

Halifax (3). 

Handsworth. 

Illingworth. 

Knaresborough. 

Pontefract.f 

Ripon. 

Ripponden (2). 

Sedbergh. 

Sowerby Bridge (2). 

Thornton Chapel or Bishop 

Thornton. § 
Thornton (near Bradford). 



* Houghton and Swaith are called M Presbyterian and Independent." 

t It is not quite clear if there were three meetings, or only one of Presbyterian, 

Baptist, and Quakers together. 
X The meetings at Penistone and Pudsey were in the Churches, there being no lawful 

ministers there. 
§ This is doubtfully described as " Quaker or Presbyterian." 



264 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 



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272 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMIT Y. 

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H 






AUTHORITIES QUOTED OR USED. 



273 



AUTHORITIES QUOTED OR USED. 



[The following List of Authorities used by the Author is probably 
incomplete. — Ed.] 



Adams, Melchior, Lives of German 
Divines. 

Baker, Register Cambridge Univer- 
sity. 

Bale, Centuries. 

Barclay, Apology for the Quakers. 

Barnes, Ambrose, Diary of. 

Beloe's Anecdotes of Literature. 

Bennet, Memorial of the Reforma- 
tion. 

Beverley, Corporation Records. 

Birch, Life of Tillotson. 

Bradford Antiquary, Papers in. 

British Museum — 

Additional MSS., 15,669-70. 
Additional Charters, 17,226. 
Birch MSS., 4,460. 
Hunter MSS. 

Broadmead Records. 

Brook, Lives of the Puritans. 

Booth, History of Pontefract. 

Calendars of State Papers. 

Calamy, Account of Ejected Minis- 
ters, First Edition. 

Camden, Magna Britannia. 

Camden Society's Publications, va- 
rious. 

Chetham Society's Publications. 

Chancery Survey. 

Clarke, Papers (Camden Society). 

Conformist's Plea for the Noncon- 
formists. 

Crosby, History of the Baptists. 

Cudworth, Round about Bradford. 

David's Annals of Nonconformity in 
Essex. 

Delaune, Narrative of Sufferings of. 
T 



Dictionary of National Biography. 

Drake, Eboracum. 

Dunton, John, Life and Errors of. 

Edwards, Gangraena. 

Entry Books, etc., in Public Record 

Office. 
Eyre, Adam, Diary. 
Evangelical Magazine, Papers in. 
Fabric Rolls — Public Record Office. 
Fairfax Correspondence. 
Fox, George, Journal. 
Frankfort, History of Troubles at. 
Fuller, Worthies of England. 
Gardiner, Documents of the Puritan 

Revolution. 
Gentleman's Magazine, Articles in. 
Hailstone's Worthies. 
Halley, Lancashire Puritanism and 

Nonconformity. 
Hanbury, Historical Memorials of 

the Independents. 
Hey wood, Oliver, Diaries, etc., of. 
Hibbert, History of the Collegiate 

Church of Manchester. 
Holroyd, Collectanea. 
Hunter, Hallamshire. 

,, Life of O. Hey wood. 
James, Presbyterian Chapels and 

Charities. 
Jolly, T., Notebook of. 
Journals of Parliament (both Houses) 
Lawton, Collections. 
Lewis, History of Congregational 

Church at Cockermouth. 
Liber Ecclesiasticus. 
Lightfoot's Works. 
Lister, Joseph, Autobiography. 



274 YORKSHIRE PURITANISM AND EARLY NONCONFORMITY. 



Authorities Quoted or Used (continued). 



Markham, Fairfax. 

Mayer, Life of Matthew Robinson. 

Miall, Congregationalism in York- 
shire. 

Monthly Repository, various papers. 

Morrice MS. in Williams's Library. 

Neal, History of the Puritans, and 
Notes in Toulmin's Edition. 

Newcome's Diary. 

Nicholl's Literary Anecdotes. 

Nightingale's Lancashire Noncon- 
formity. 

Northowram Register. 

Orme's Life of Owen. 

Paget, Hseresiography. 

Palmer, Nonconformists' Memorial. 

Parliamentary Survey, 1650. 

Pearson's Northowram History and 
Antiquities. 

Peck, Desiderata Curiosa. 

Poulson's Holderness. 

Raine, History of Hemingborough. 
Yorkshire Diaries (Surtees 
Society). 

Reresby, Life and Travels of Sir 
John. 

Savage, Genealogical Dictionary of 
First Settlers in New England. 

Sampson's Day Book — British Mu- 
seum. 



Shaw, J., Diary of (Surtees Society). 

Sidney, Diary and Correspondence 
of Charles II. 

Sheldon, Archbishop, MS. Collections 
in Lambeth Library. 

Slate, Life of Oliver Hey wood. 

Speight, Lower Wharfedale. 

Stevens, History of Church at Rot- 
terdam. 

Surtees Society Publications, various. 

Sylvester, Reliquiae Buxterianae. 

Thoresby, Diary and Correspond- 
ence. 

Urwick, Nonconformity in Cheshire. 
,, Early History of Trinity 
College, Dublin. 

Waddington, Congregational History. 

Wilson, W., Dissenting Churches in 
London, etc. 

Woodrow, List of Suffering Scottish 
Ministers. 

Wood, Ant., Athenae Oxonienses et 
Fasti. 

Wood, Ant., History of Oxford 
Colleges, Gulch's Edition. 

York Archaeological Journal. 

York Depositions. 

Yorkshire County Magazine, Papers 



Also a large number of Parish Registers, Wills, Church Books, Funeral 
Sermons, Sepulchral Inscriptions, and Private Letters. 



Alexander & Shepheard, Ltd., Printers, Rolls Buildings, Fetter Lane, E.C. 



w 



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